Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Starstruck
by Onatu
Summary: A meteor storm causes the transformation of a human into a Squirtle. As he searches for a purpose to this, he finds himself helping another to discover their own purpose. For who has more mysterious of an existence than Deoxys? AU to PMD2
1. Prologue

**Ah, the start of my second fanfic. It feels great, you know that? Anyways, I've had this idea on the back of my head since May, and it has been slowly developing since then. Really, I couldn't even start until mid-June, since I needed to play the games first before actually writing a story on them (duh!). Anyways, I'm pleased with the result, and I hope everyone else is too.**

**Disclaimer: Obviously, I do not own Pokemon. None of the 493 or however many there are now. Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures, Inc. do. Although, I do wish I was at least a part of Nintendo...  
I do, however, own all of my characters used. Just who they are/personalities, nothing else.**

**To clear things up, in case this causes some confusion, this story is, I suppose, AU. Same everything, only the events of PMD2 never occurred. No Primal Dialga, no nothing. Lastly, the Pokemon have full capabilites to evolve whenever. Nothing to hold them back, only to evolve under the right conditions.**

**And here's a little help:**

Speech: Main Human Character  
_Speech: Deoxys  
_**Speech: Arceus**

* * *

Prologue: Impact

What do I remember? Well that's the thing…not much at all. There had been a news report…A huge meteor shower was to be viewable that night, in fact all over where the world would be at night. They said that this one would be spectacular, unlike anything seen before.

Was it last night? Two nights ago? I cannot be sure. I've lost track of time, everything has happened so fast and yet, so slow.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

_The meteors…the huge flash of light…what was all of that? Wait…what is this I am doing? What is this that I am able to hear myself?_

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What happened that night? I went to Meteor Falls. The report had said that the area south of my home, Fallarbor Town, would be the best for viewing. So I left to see it…and then everything went downhill from there.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

_What is this that I can do? I have…limbs…but how do I know that's what these four extensions are? I just…do. No explanation…I just happen to know. Then what…have I become?_

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I had been surprised seeing so many people gathering at Meteor Falls for the shower. Then again, it had been said that this would be…spectacular. How right they would be. In fact it was…beyond spectacular.

I remember the Lunatone and Solrock were surprisingly numerous that night, swarming out of the cave and into the open. They must have felt the meteors flying by, and wished to see them. I guess they must have really had a connection with space.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

_I…float…aimlessly through this void. Specks of light are all around me, but seem so very far. Except for one, it is oh so close. And spherical rocks…they are called planets? They are surrounding this light, this…star. Some are closer, ahead of me while some are far behind me, stretching to where even I cannot see them._

But how do I know these…words?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

It was chaos. The meteors had been spectacular, sure, but then…they fell. They rained down upon us, sending everyone in a frenzy. The pokemon, however, were calm. They sat and watched, or floated in the case of some, as if waiting for something. I, too, stood by and watched, even though I knew that that would be dangerous. I just felt compelled to do so by some outside force. I felt as if I had no control over my muscles to tell them work. Then the meteor struck.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

_One of these…planets, I see, is different. It is blue, and from what these eyes of mine can view, full of…life. But what is this…life? How can I know this? I need answers. Just what am I?_

"**You are unique. You are one of my own…a pokemon." **a voice spoke, echoing in the new being's head. He looked around, yet saw nothing.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The huge meteor threw me back several feet, scraping me up quite a bit on the rocks that covered the exterior of Meteor Falls. I grunted and got back up, looking around at the scene. The Lunatone and Solrock…they still floated there, motionless, looking expectantly at the crater where the larger meteor had landed. I could see it, somehow it was still intact, but cracks dotted the surface. A pinkish glow emanated from within it, escaping out of the cracks. I began to slowly approach it, curiosity getting the better of me. How foolish of me.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"_Unique? Pokemon? I do not understand. Who are you? Can you tell me why I'm here? I don't remember anything until shortly ago when I could do just that…remember. And think."_

"**You are a creature that I willed to create. You were a simple virus before. I changed that. You seemed different. I believed you should have a chance to know. To think. To know. Thus, I channeled energy in a laser, a bright beam of light. That, my creation, caused you to become what you are. So that created you, and I filled your mind with extensive knowledge, so you know to speak through your telepathy, and understand so much more than many could ever hope."**_"And? That is all? Then tell me, just what am I?"_………………………………………………………………………………………………………

As soon as I dropped into the crater to inspect the meteor, I knew something was amiss. The Lunatone and Solrock had slowly enclosed the crater after I entered. It didn't look as if I would be able to leave anytime soon. Sighing, I turned to look at the meteor. Surprisingly, it had split open when I hadn't been looking. And what was within did not look friendly.

A bipedal dragon pokemon slowly lumbered onto its feet, its tail rolling out and blade-like wings unfurling. It stretched itself, and I could see as it stood that it was gigantic. I was just over six feet tall, but this had to be well over ten, and unlike any pokemon I had seen before. It had two strange pink spheres in its shoulders that flashed, causing a pink aura to surround the dragon. I couldn't move, for I was frozen in both fear and awe.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"**What are you? Just what I said, one of my own creations. Previously a simple virus, mere DNA floating in the vast, empty universe. But now, you are much more. You are you, you are a legendary. You, my creation, are to be known as…Deoxys."**

"_Deoxys…my name? So that is my name, that is what I am to be known as? Deoxys…"_

"**Indeed, my creation. But now I must bid you an enjoyable life. Learn your place, and I know we shall meet again, face to face."**_"Wait, please! Tell me, who are you? And my place? My purpose? Please tell me! I am lost, I do not understand!"  
_

"**You shall learn. In due time you shall learn it all. My name, and your purpose. But I cannot tell you, for not even I know. You must learn it for yourself. Then we shall meet, and you will join the other legendaries. Until that time, I must say farewell…"**_"Wait! How I am to find out anything? Where must I go to learn? Help me, please!"_

" **Farewell…"**

"_WAIT! OOF!" _Deoxys cried, as a meter smacked into him, completely annihilating his body and leaving only the crystalline heart stuck fast to the rock. The meteor hurtled towards Earth, joined by thousands of other small fragments that would soon dazzle the sky, as well as bring chaos.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I had continued to stare at the awesome sight of the hulking pokemon over me. I could feel the power radiating from it, and I feared for the worst. Maybe, I had thought, it wouldn't notice me. Not so. It looked down at me after a minute or so, and then cried a guttural noise into the night that had me clutching at my ears in pain.

When it had finished, I looked up to see it gathering energy in both of its claws. I screamed, but was cut short as the claws fell upon me, slicing into my body. And yet, I felt no pain. Instead, I saw myself being pulled into a strange area, where there was sound, yet there wasn't. There was space, yet there wasn't. But the colors. I could see the colors, everywhere. A voice boomed, or was it my imagination? Either way, I couldn't hear it. I couldn't focus at all. It felt as if I was falling, yet I wasn't. Was I? And that's where we get to the present.

How long has it been in here? Or has any time passed at all? I have no idea. And it doesn't look like I will find out. Everything seems to be getting louder, yet more peaceful. I am losing consciousness, no matter how hard I fight to hang on. My body feels lighter, and smaller. Am I imagining that too? Am I even imagining this? Maybe I'm dreaming, actually back home in bed, having a horrible nightmare. Or maybe, just maybe, I am…I am…I…

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"**Destiny…That is what all life seeks. Their own…destiny."**

**So how'd that go for a prologue? I hope it wasn't terribly confusing, I'm sorry if it is. Actually, if it is please tell me so I can fix it.**

**Brushing that aside, I really hope this does do well. Next chapter we'll introduce some more of the characters, as well as see what became of our yet-to-be-named protagonist (don't worry, I have the name).**

* * *


	2. Reborn

**Well, I'm glad that this is actually being read! Kinda afraid at first, especially since writing a Pokemon story is new territory for me. But I'm sure that I'll be good after a bit.**

**And thank you ScytheRider for your review! I'm glad you like it (But sorry that the summary was confusing. I was unsure how to go about with it).**

* * *

Chapter 1: Reborn

Styx the Houndoom was not at all enjoying his day. It was late, and he had yet to make a successful hunt. He was hungry; there was no doubt about it, and about ready to snap. All of the other pokemon were avoiding him, fearful that he would attack and try to eat them if given the chance. If it came to that, he probably would.

Treasure Town was experiencing a shortage in the receiving of supplies, including food. The meteor shower from a few days ago had left its mark all over the place, especially from the bigger meteors. Therefore, every time more food shipped in, people were lining up to get their share. Styx had no such luck. There would already be a mile-long line by the time he would get up every day, so he had almost no chance. Berry trees were also out of the question, since they were always picked clean. His only hope was that either the Guild would have some food, or that his luck would pick up, and he could find some prey. Even a bug sounded delicious now.

Styx kept to his thoughts, his head low to the ground to sniff out for anything. Suddenly, a flash of light caught his eyes. He immediately shot his head up, seeing the light waning in the distance. Something big was happening, and he was definitely going to find out what.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Phloe had been bored, to say very the least. She had been faring quite well in the shortage, unlike much of Treasure Town. As a Treecko, and such being grass-type, she was able to handle the situation much better, especially in that she had her little house in the trees where she lived and stored all the food she could find. 'Better to stock up on as much as possible,' she had thought. Only problem being that now it seemed she had too much. 'Oh well,' she thought as she leapt from one tree to the next. 'I'll just bring some back into town tomorrow. Then again, that may bring attention. Better to do it when no one is looking.' She smirked.

Coming into a clearing, she came upon a multitude of flowers, their color creating a mosaic effect on the ground as the wind swept them gently to and fro. She would have taken that moment to relax and enjoy the sight if things hadn't turned for the worst. The wind picked up suddenly, violently whipping around her. If that wasn't enough, a small dot of light appeared in the middle of the field, rising up slowly before stopping several feet off of the ground. A moment later it burst in a blinding flash of light, causing Phloe to drop down in fear. Shutting her eyes, she held her hands over her head as the light intensified, quickly growing and creating a roar of thunderous noise. Before she knew it, both the noise and light vanished.

Cautiously she lifted her hands from her head and cautiously squinted through her eyes. She gasped at what she saw.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Styx had seen the light and heard the roar. He ran as fast as his four legs could move towards the site of the event. His curiosity was getting the better of him, despite his mind telling him that something was off. Shaking off the feeling, he continued on. Using Flamethrower, he torched any brush or trees that got into his way. He had to be fast to get there in case there may be no trace of what happened in a few minutes time. Not long after he saw the edge of the trees leading into what looked to be a small clearing. Charging forward, he grinned knowing that his destination was in reach.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"Hey…are you alright?"

I clamped my hands over my ears, trying to put the voice out. My brain felt like it was being thrashed around my head, and I could do nothing about it.

"Come on, I need to know that you're at least not dying."

'Dying?' I thought. Doubt it. More like just a massive headache. Groaning, I slowly rolled myself onto my stomach, and then pushed myself into a sitting position. Funny, I felt a little shorter. Probably just because I can't tell much right with my throbbing head. "Ugh." I said. Whoever was in front of me, my guess a girl by her voice, breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's good then," she said. Her tone of voice then took on a bit more of a friendly tone, not so much serious and frightened as before. "You can open your eyes you know. It probably won't kill you." I groaned again. Too much talking, too much noise. "What's the matter, you got a headache or something?"

"More than you can imagine." I grumbled. As I spoke, I finally opened my eyes, the light burning intensely. I squeezed my eyes shut before slowly beginning to open them a second time. This time I could do it with less irritation, but it still took a second for me to adjust. Looking around, I saw that I was in what appeared to be a clearing in some forest. I could see some mountains far in the distance ahead of me, and storm clouds hung high above them.

I looked around, trying to find the girl that I had been speaking to. Turning this way and that, I saw no one. In fact, all I heard was a gentle breeze that rustled the leaves of the trees. Although strangely enough, there was a lone Treecko standing a few feet in front of me. It stared at me questioningly, as if waiting for me to say something. Shrugging, I finally stood up on my two feet. Then things got really freaky.

The Treecko was standing at about my height, maybe only an inch or so shorter. That meant either one of two things: that I was somehow at that weird animatronic pokemon amusement park, or that I had shrunk. I really hoped the former to be true.

"Something wrong?" the girl's voice said again. I thrashed my head wildly trying to find her, but still found no luck in my search. Unless… "Did you just…talk to me?" I asked the Treecko. It gave me a 'you gotta be kidding me' look before speaking directly to me.

"Uh, yeah. What, your parents tell you Treeckos were speech impaired or something?"

"No, no! That's not it, it's just that you're a pokemon and you're…talking." She looked at me like I was crazy. "Well duh," she said, shaking her head. "All pokemon can talk. Everyone knows that, you weird little Squirtle."

"What?!" I exclaimed, completely confused by what she said. "Sq-Squirtle? No, you have it all wrong. I-I'm a hu-human!" Even as I spoke, I had a feeling I was wrong, but didn't want find out. "N-no, that's impossible. I…I am a-"

I was cut off when a blast of flames broke through a small section of forest, creating a hole that an average sized Houndoom walked through. And while he was average sized, to me he almost looked like a giant. Yes, I realized that in fact I was a Squirtle after looking myself over. Light blue skin, a shell, and a curled tail. Great, just wonderful.

The Houndoom looked me and the Treecko over, before taking a big whiff of the surrounding air. His eyes shot open in alarm, the pupils narrowing into slits. He glared at me, his tail flicking this way and that. "HUMAN!" he screamed. "You! You reek of human! Just what are you?!" I gulped in fear, frozen to the spot on which I stood.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

**Styx POV**

I knew something had been amiss the whole time. Now I know why. This Squirtle, there was definitely something wrong with him. Sure, he looked like most other Squirtles. But his scent…it wasn't normal. It was human through and through. Humans have never touched this land. They never dared. But here, here is the first sign of humans touching this land in…ever.

I quickly made the decision to end it there. 'Humans must never be allowed here,' I thought. 'If they took this…all would be ruined. I cannot allow that!'

"Meal time!" I shouted, licking my lips before lunging forward at the frightened Squirtle. Inches from him, I was slammed aside. The Treecko had decided to help that…human, and used a Pound attack on me. Traitor. I guess she would have to go first, this Squirtle seemed too frightened to do anything anyway. "Bring it!" I screamed as I used a Bite on her, crushing the bones in her left arm. I savored the resulting scream; it made me feel so much better after the past few weeks. She used another Pound on me, freeing her hand. Blast. My prey got away.

I could see her twenty feet from my side, panting while gripping her injured arm. Her blood was freely dripping down it. She seemed to ignore the pain long enough to prepare an attack. Next thing I knew, my energy began to be sapped from me. An Absorb attack? "Heh, no problem." I said. The yellow orbs of energy going to her were nothing compared to what was left in me. This fight…it was completely one-sided.

Smirking, I felt the heat rise within me to unleash a devastating Flamethrower.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

**Main Char. POV**

I couldn't move. I was too confused, too afraid to do anything. That Treecko…she saved me. She was risking her life to save me, and she doesn't even know me. Really, I don't even know me. I think I was a human…no, I'm sure of it. But now I'm a Squirtle all of a sudden. Yeah, doesn't make a bit of sense.

I could see the Houndoom staring the Treecko down. She was bleeding pretty badly from her left arm, it definitely hurt her from the way she was clutching it and biting her lip. The Houndoom was grinning madly at her. I couldn't let him injure her anymore, especially with the type advantage he had.

I saw him open his mouth, and tiny flames began to jump out. I could see from where I stood that the back of his throat was beginning to light up. He was preparing a Flamethrower, which would seriously hurt that Treecko, if not kill her. Looking at her, I could see that she realized the same, but she was too weak to move out of the way. That meant it was all up to me. But, I didn't know how to do anything. No attacks, no nothing. It's not like I could learn right here and now…could I?

"Stop," I said, squeezing my eyes shut. "Stop it. Stop it!" I yelled more forcefully this time. Taking a deep breath, I quickly exhaled, unleashing a small torrent of bubbles straight at the Houndoom.

Moments before the Flamethrower was unleashed, he looked to his side and saw the Bubble attack. Too late to react before they made contact, they hit him directly, knocking him out of focus for his own attack. Instead of hitting the Treecko, the fire harmlessly blasted into the sky.

My attack seemed to have shaken the Houndoom, I could see that he definitely wasn't expecting it. Truthfully, neither was I. He shook his head before snarling at me. "Kid, listen here. I know you're human, I can smell it. You can't hide that fact, everyone will know. And they will turn on you. Humans as pokemon…that's ridiculous, but I see it here." He spat a few embers at the ground before continuing. "I'm done with this. But hear me now: I'll be back for you. If you don't disappear anytime soon, I'll make sure you do. Limb by limb." Laughing to himself, he straightened a bit before taking off, running in the direction opposite from where he came from.

After he left, the Treecko breathed a sigh of relief before finally collapsing to the ground, barely conscious. "Ah!" I exclaimed, running over to help her. Struggling to learn to use my new stubby limbs, I pulled her up and hefted her onto the back of my shell. She moaned softly from the pain of her shattered arm, clutching it with her other arm.

"You're going to have to hold on you know. I need to take you somewhere to get healed…but then again, I don't really know where." She mumbled something to me, but I couldn't hear her. "Sorry, could you repeat that?" I asked. She said it again. "Take me…to the big tree. You can't miss it. It looks different from the others. It's that way." She pointed off to the west, where the Sun looked about near to set before she finally fell unconscious. I began to think, how much time passed since that fateful night anyways?

Not bothering to worry myself with that question, I began to trudge through the clearing, heading in the direction she had pointed. Entering the forest, I was soon surrounded by voices from some pokemon. It seemed as if a bit of them lived out in little houses within these trees, wherever I was, that is.

I began to quicken my pace along, hoping to get to where she said to go before it was too late. The blood from her arm continued to flow freely; I could only imagine the amount she lost already. I could feel her heart grow fainter with every few steps I took. Just how far away was this tree anyways?

I noticed that a few pokemon were watching me in almost horrified silence as I walked on. I looked at them, pleading with my eyes for help. "Please!" I shouted, my voice slightly shaking. "I need help! She needs to get to a big tree; I guess that's her home or something. Can someone please help?!" None of them moved, instead continuing to just stare in solemn silence.

A few minutes later I heard what sounded like hooves clattering towards us. A Ponyta galloped in front of me, pulling along a vine attached to a giant leaf. A Blissey ran up beside it.

"Get on!" she cried in a high-pitched voice. Complying, I laid the Treecko on the leaf before situating myself on it next to her. The Ponyta nodded, and began to gallop off to who knows where, the Blissey running to keep up. I held onto the leaf with one hand, and the Treecko with the other. After what seemed like forever, we slowed down before finally stopping. The Ponyta dropped the vine from its mouth, and snorted as the Blissey caught up. She grabbed the Treecko and pulled her along while I took a look around.

In front of me was the absolute biggest tree I have ever seen. It seemed to stretch a couple hundred feet into the sky, far higher than any of the surrounding trees. I could see the Blissey open a door at its base, and pull the Treecko inside. The Ponyta followed closely behind, shutting the door. Snapping from my trance, I ran to it. "Hey, wait for me!" I yelled, running inside.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

Inside, the Blissey immediately set to work on cleaning the blood up and stopping it. She had numerous herbs and berries nearby, as well as what I could presume to be crude medical supplies. The Treecko began to wince as a medicine was applied to her bite wounds. I just sat against a wall, continuing to watch in fear. "Please…," I whispered. "Please be okay. Don't die from that, please don't die…"

* * *

**So how did this go? Two characters introduced, both will play roles later on. I'll put the next chapter up in a few days while I get ahead on a few more. See ya later!**


	3. Friends

**I really hate having to start stories. They always seem so slow at the start, I can't figure out a way to get things really going. Oh well, while I don't really like this chapter much, I hope everyone else does. Expect the next one in a few days, maybe a week. Just to inform everyone, updates may be a bit sporadic for a month or two, for reasons no one needs to worry about. Please do enjoy this, and thanks to ScytheRider for his reviews!**

* * *

Chapter 2: Friends

I had been sitting in the same spot all night long. Blissey had already finished her work a little while ago, which thankfully was successful. Now I just sat her waiting for the Treecko to wake up. I wasn't so worried now since I knew that she wasn't going to die but my mind was still abuzz from the whole thing.

'She finds me in a field unconscious, is taken aback by my behavior, and is almost killed by a Houndoom while trying to protect me. What the world is going on here?' I rubbed my temples, annoyed by the confusion of all of this. Nothing seemed right to me, especially since...well, now that I was a pokemon all of a sudden. It had to have something to do with that dragon pokemon, I just knew it. If only I knew what it was…

"Ungh…wh-where am I?" the Treecko said, struggling to sit up. Blissey ran back out from a different room and gently laid her back down. "You're in the Forest Hospital," she stated in her squeaky voice. "Your friend here," she motioned to me, still sitting against the wall. "He carried you from wherever you were." The Treecko looked surprised and gave me a questioning look.

"Uh, well," I stuttered, blushing with embarrassment. "Not the whole way. A Ponyta, who I presume works here as well, came by and dragged us both on a leaf for the last stretch. But…for most of the way, yeah." I scratched the back of my head. Blissey nodded. "Yep! He seemed to try hard to help you. So great to see nice pokemon around, isn't it?" I laughed nervously. 'Yeah…pokemon...'

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

It was late morning, and Blissey had the Treecko's arm in a sling. The bite wounds were bandaged up, but that didn't mean the pain had ended.

"Grr, this really smarts you know." she said while trying to rub the injured arm. Unfortunately, since the whole thing was currently in pieces, bone-wise, that caused the pain to increase. She was still sitting on the little bed she had been originally laid on trying to pass the time. Blissey ran in to check up on her. "I wouldn't do that if I were you!" she sang. Man, her voice could get annoying over time. "Keep that up, and it'll only make the healing process take longer!" She ran back into another room, probably to look after other pokemon. The Treecko groaned. "Now she tells me."

The Treecko then looked over to me, a slightly annoyed look about her face. "So, you going to thank me yet for saving your skin back there?" I was taken aback at her sudden request. "Well…what about for me? I completely saved your life from being toasted by that Houndoom!" She sighed. "Yeah, I do suppose you're right. Thanks by the way. At least it's only, well, this." She motioned to her arm.

I nodded. "Likewise. It was really lucky that you found me when you did. Otherwise I might be…yeah. I guess we're on even terms then?"

"Yep."

"Okay, cool." I searched my mind for something else to say. "Soooo, when do you think you can leave?"

"She can leave right now if she wants to!" Blissey said as she dashed into the room. I flinched at her voice. Really, was there not a muzzle or something? I didn't let my face show any annoyance, instead just forcing a smile on my face. "Great!" I said behind clenched teeth. "Just great! Simply _wunderbar_! Let's go!"

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The Treecko and I left the tree and began to venture off to another section of the forest, her leading the way. "So let me get this straight: you believe that you were a human only a few days ago, but are now a pokemon, with no memory of anything else. Did I get everything there?"

"Yeah, that's just about it. I remember the event, but that's it. Nothing else."

"What about your name?" I shrugged. "I don't even remember that. Just nothing on anything else other than those few things."

She smiled. "Well, no one should be without a name! So how about I come up with one for you? Let's see…how about, Tide? That sound good with you?"

"Well, it's better than no name at all. So sure, I suppose I'm Tide now."

She grabbed my hand with her free left one as we were walking. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Tide. My name is Phloe." We shook hands. "So how different is it for you? You know, to be a Squirtle after being a human for all your life?"

"It's…well, it's weird to say the least. I feel so short, and stubby. Thankfully this shell doesn't seem to be much of a problem," I knocked on it for emphasis. "But, the tail…now that's just weird. I don't get it! I can't seem to control it, and does it serve any purpose at all?!"

Phloe shrugged. "Meh, attacking mainly. Otherwise…I guess not much."

I sighed. "I'll tell you this: I worry that I'll be stuck like this for the rest of my life. I can't stay like this forever, I need to get back to my humanity and soon!"

"What, so does being a pokemon disgust you or something?" she clearly sounded offended from my words. I stuttered, trying to find the words to speak. "S-sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I just…want to get back to my people. This is kinda cool, yes, but still. I just want to go back. Plus, that Houndoom will tear me apart if I stay too long."

She patted my back in reassurance. "Hey, I understand. Really…I've wanted to get back with my own kind for a long time…" she drifted off into her thoughts as we walked. "Uh, what do you mean?" I asked. She snapped out of her trance. "Nothing! Sorry, nothing at all! Oh look!" she pointed a few hundred feet in front of us. "There's my tree! I suppose, since you obviously don't have any place to stay, you can stay here. I do have an extra bed that…I guess you could…use." She began to drift into her own thoughts again. I snapped my fingers in front of her.

"Hey, you okay?" She snapped out of it again, and laughed a bit. "Oh, nothing, nothing! Come on, I'll show you around!" With that she took off to the tree, making sure not to jostle her arm too much. I paused at her unexpected change in attitude, but shrugged it off, running to catch up.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"So, here's my little home, I guess. Not much but, it works." Phloe showed me around the interior of the tree. It was a large tree in width and was also quite tall, but the weird thing was that the bottom quarter was completely hollow. There seemed to just be about three rooms, one every floor, with enough space for a connecting stairway to the next floor up. It was simple, I admit, but I'm not one to complain. I'm just thankful that I have somewhere to stay for now.

"Now, I'm guessing that you are probably wondering where you sleep, right?" she asked. "Yeah, I was beginning to wonder that." She motioned me to follow her.

Coming upon the third floor of the tree, she pushed open a decently sized opening in the bark of the tree with her working arm. She walked out, with me cautiously following. The hole led onto a thick branch, with several others closely together. This made a surprisingly stable area where she had two makeshift beds randomly interspersed on the branches. "Wow." I said, and it was not just because of the ingeniousness of it all. A few hundred feet away were tens of other pokemon playing, working, and sleeping around a lake. It was such a shock to see, yet at the same time it felt natural.

Phloe looked in the direction that I was. "What, you surprised or something?" I nodded. "I've never seen so many pokemon in one area, much less in such peace. She snorted. "It's not like we were just for fighting, like you humans think of it. We do so much more, but yes fighting is something that comes natural to us. Perhaps the coolest things I can think of are the exploration teams." Her eyes shone fiercely as she spoke. I cocked my head to the side in confusion. "Exploration teams? What are those?"

Phloe shook her head, smiling. "Exploration teams are groups ranging from two to four members that go around the whole place looking for treasures and all sorts of stuff. They're technically hired by guilds that they work for, which then send them off on the missions that take them all over the land."

"Sounds like you know a lot about them. You mind if I ask why?"

"That's because I've always have had ambitions to join one. Ever since I was young, it was a goal of mine. To be a part of the best exploration team that ever existed. That is how I wanted it to be." She sighed softly, smiling at the thought.

"So, why aren't you in one now? You seem nice enough; I don't see why you don't have your own team that's going around finding those treasures. I would think anyone would be willing to have you on their team, especially seeing you fight that Houndoom yesterday."

She stiffened. The smile left her face and she walked over to one of the beds. "You know, I feel really tired. That fight did take a lot out of me, especially from the blood loss. I should, you know, get some good rest. Really tired, yeah, just really tired." She lay down and faced away from me. "Oh, and the other bed…you…you can sleep there. That can be your bed for now."

I blinked. What had just happened? Did I just hit a touchy subject or something? Better to just leave it… "You're going to go to sleep now? It's just barely the evening!" I received no reply from her, just the near silence of her breathing. Now I felt really bad. "Okay…I'm sorry for that, I didn't know. I'll just, go to bed, too." And I laid down, retreating into my shell for a good long sleep.

* * *

**I have nothing to say except sorry if this was a bit dull. I need to start things up and introduce characters more. Expect more Deoxys next chapter, bet you are all wondering what's been going with him, right?**


	4. Alien

**I haven't update this in over a week, terribly sorry. I'm kinda busy at the moment, plus I am more focused on a summer essay and my other fanfic at the moment. But I haven't forgotten this! Nope, that's one thing about me: I will never abandon a story unless I'm dead or something. Enjoy, and review if you feel like it!**

* * *

Chapter 3: Alien

Far from Treasure Town and the forest surrounding it lay Mt. Horn, a treacherous mountain area not regularly accessed by pokemon other than those of exploration teams. Even then, not even beginning explorers usually ventured through it. Most of it was inhabited by rogue pokemon, many hiding from the law or just flat out uncivilized. They lurked through the entire mountain and the area surrounding it. That is, that was how things were before the meteor shower.

In the aftermath of the event, the mountain had taken a heavy hit from a rather large meteor, leaving a decently sized chunk missing in its side. Most of the pokemon were too afraid to investigate after feeling an unearthly energy emanating from the very bottom of the crater.

One day, a foolish Machop decided to be the brave one in front of everyone else. Going alone, he scrambled down the face of the crater, ignoring the feeling that he definitely should not be there. To his fascination there was a purple shining oval stone smack in the center of the crater. It seemed to give off its own light from within, giving it the appearance of a strange, oversized Shiny Stone. Smirking at the pathetic sniveling of his fellow pokemon, the Machop reached down to grab the strange rock. Just before he touched it, particles of light began to swirl around it in a whirlpool-like fashion.

Jumping back, the Machop slowly backed away from the stone as the swirling intensified. More particles came, quickly collecting together around the rock. They formed a square orange body around the blue stone. A black stomach formed below before an orange hip section was created. Legs followed suit, and at the same time, four tube-like arms were created, two orange, the other two a sky blue. Finally, a head formed. It was oval with the same orange as the rest of the body. A splotch of blue was in the center, and two orange trapezoid shapes were protruding from either side.

The Machop continued to back off in fear of the newly formed entity. It continued to lay there until the Machop slipped on a rock. The noise caused the being's eyes to snap open, and it immediately floated into a standing position, four arms waving and twisting erratically.

'_Where…am I?'_

The Machop made a noise of surprise when it heard the pokemon's voice in his head. It turned its head in his direction, eyes locked in a stoic gaze. '_Tell me now! Where am I?'_ The Machop continued to just sit there and stare in fear. Fed up with the pokemon, Deoxys rose several feet up and put his four tentacle arms at a point in front of his crystal heart. An orb of energy was formed, quickly growing before being unleashed on the helpless Machop. He didn't even have time to scream before the Psycho Boost attack brought him clinging to life. '_Fool…_' Deoxys muttered before flying off across the sky, deciding not to kill the pokemon. '_Someone must be able to tell me where I am…and what I am to do…'_

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Deoxys continued to soar through the clouds, going in a northerly direction. He had passed many flying types, all of which he knew the names of. '_But why? Arceus…he filled my head with this knowledge. I know it…'_

The clouds were white and fluffy, and Deoxys took note of that. '_This…this is nothing like when in space. Alone. These clouds…they seem calm and carefree. They know what they do. But I…what was I made to do?'_ He flew through a travelling group of Drifloon and Drifblim, causing them to unexpectedly fly away from each other as his air current disturbed their path. Deoxys paid no mind to this. All he cared to do was to keep moving, keep going until he found somewhere where he could hide. Changing directions now, he continued to the west.

On his flight, several pokemon managed to spot him, but his altitude caused them to only question what they saw. One such group happened to be an exploration team in Apple Woods.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Team Sting, as it happened to be, was exploring the forest for one task. One very important task. Such that if they failed, their membership in Wigglytuff's Guild, and perhaps their lives, would be clinging for support.

"So Chatot put us up to this menial task?" asked Scorp. His team leader, Pin, nodded. "Yep. Seems we were the only team available at the time. So let's just make sure that we don't mess up on this. Otherwise…well, you know what happens when Guildmaster doesn't have his Perfect Apples." His companions, Scorp and Puffer, gulped nervously.

"R-right. We…really don't need to be blasted by a Hyper Voice...or something worse." Squeaked Puffer. Scorp looked at him. "What could possibly be worse?!" Puffer merely shivered in fright, refusing to say any more. Scorp, unsatisfied with the answer, kept prying. "Come on, you can say what it is. Not like it'll kill you. Or would it?"

Pin sighed in annoyance before buzzing down and jabbing Scorp with one of his needle hands. Yowling in pain, Scorp jumped up into a tree. "That wasn't funny!" he yelled down to his sniggering companions. "If Guildmaster heard about this he would-wait, what is that?!" he pointed to the sky, both of his partners following his gaze. In the sky heading due west was a humanoid orange and blue shape. In seconds, it was gone.

Team Sting continued to stand there staring in bewilderment at what they had just witnessed. Pin was the first to break the silence. "That thing…never have I seen something like that before," he shook his head. "Weird stuff has been happening lately, right guys? First the meteors and now that...thing. When we get back from this mission, we are so telling Wigglytuff, and then telling everyone else."

"Uh-huh." His teammates said in unison. Both stared for a few more seconds before snapping out of it and continuing on. "You don't think that maybe...there was a connection between that and the meteors, do you guys?" Puffer asked. Pin merely "hmmed" in thought. There was more of a connection than they could imagine.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Deoxys continued his flight path, passing through plenty more clouds and several flocks of pokemon. It had been many hours since he first began, but he felt no different. '_Must be an added effect of this "gift" from Arceus. I will hand it to him, as much as I am troubled now, he has provided so much help for me. Now the only question is, where am I now? All I know is that I am on this planet called…Earth. Another fragment of information from Arceus.'_

Deoxys took notice that the terrain below had begun to flatten out slowly losing trees. Before long it was grassland, which soon dissipated to even less. '_A…desert? Yes…that is what this is called. Northern Desert…it seems barren and desolate. Good enough for me. Perhaps now I can be alone to think. Then from there…my search will begin. To find out…my purpose. My…destiny.'_

He landed in a rockier section of the desert, far from where any exploration team has ever dared venture. Many cave entrances dotted the face of a particularly large rock formation that protruded from the sandy desert. '_This…this should be suitable. I can detect that there is more life within. But this continues far below the ground. Surely I can procure a temporary living space. If not…I shall make one.'_

Touching down at the entrance to one opening, Deoxys walked into the darkness. The light quickly disappeared, but this was no problem for him. _'These eyes…they can see so much. Even in the darkness, there is still so much I can see. Arceus…you are interesting. Right now, I can't decide whether to hate you or thank you. I suppose I'll decide upon that later.'_

Continuing to walk through, he ran into very few problems. Rogue pokemon mostly ran away at the sight of this unfamiliar visitor. Even when he did run into a problem it did not last long. A simple Hyper Beam or Psycho Boost was enough to make sure he got his way. When he harmed the pokemon like this, he felt no sympathy. He did not know his emotions yet, so everything came upon impulse.

At long last he found a large cave pocket that would suit him. Unfortunately for him, there was already a group of Baltoy occupying it. _'Get out. This is mine now.'_ Deoxys said. One of the Baltoy laughed. 'Over my dead body!' it psychically replied. Deoxys narrowed his eyes. _'With pleasure.'_ he said, charging up a Psycho Boost. The Baltoy wasted no time in leaving, spinning rapidly to dig holes into the ground for escape. Deoxys let the attack die after he knew they were gone. He seated himself cross-legged upon the ground. _'Now,'_ he began. _'I can think. Let me see just what the extent of my knowledge truly is.'_

* * *

**Short? Yeah, I know. Sorry about that, just a quick thing to show what's up with our little DNA mutant. And we meet Team Sting! These guys will more than likely end up in an important role in this story. But why am I telling you guys that? You'll just need to wait and see how things develop.**

**Oh, I suppose I shall take requests for teams and/or missions. Preferably the former. If you do create an OC team for this, send me a PM with information on them in this format:**

Team Name  
Members (Genders help as well)  
Background/Experience  
Moves (Gah, I had forgotten that!)

**So just PM me with that, and anything else that you feel is important. I believe I will go with the first 3 teams for now. I already have about three to write on (including Sting and of course, that of our heroes. The other you'll learn of later). I may allow further OC teams at a later date, but for now, 3 is the limit. Sorry in advance if yours isn't chosen!**


	5. Team

**Sorry for the long space in between updates. I'm afraid that this will probably be how things will be for this story, as my other one currently holds more of a priority. But this will never be abandoned! As long as I see people reading this, I'll keep writing it. And school starts the 1st for me. So updates will be quite possibly even slower. Sorry. I'll try as best as I can to strike a balance on everything.  
Please do enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 4: Team

I woke up groggily the next morning with the Sun already up a bit in the sky. If I were to guess, it was probably already something like ten o'clock. Not like that matters much anyways, since I'm now a Squirtle. Yawning, I rubbed my eyes until I decided to finally open them to the sunlight breaking through the tree branches. Looking around, I found Phloe's bed to be empty.

I waited a few more minutes before I decided to get up, stretching my arms and legs as they came out of my shell. That would definitely be something to get used to. Kinda weird at first, I'll tell you. I stumbled out onto the main branch, walking towards the entrance into the tree.

Once inside, I found the stairs and worked myself down to the ground level of the tree. There I found Phloe sitting there with a berry in her working hand, lost in thought. "She always did like Bluk berries…" she mumbled, continuing to stare at the wall in front of her. I was beginning to wonder if she really was okay. "Uh, is something wrong?" I waved my hand in front of her face. Finally she blinked, taking notice of the world around her once more. "What's going on?" she asked.

"I just came down and saw you staring into space like a zombie. Was something up?" She thought for a second before waving me off. "Heh, no, nothing is wrong. Sorry about that. I was just thinking about something that happened a few years ago." Now I was really curious. "What? What happened?" She frowned. "Don't worry. It's nothing important, really. Maybe someday I'll tell you but…right now, no. I don't really want to talk about it."

I nodded, respecting her wishes. "That's fine. Sorry, I shouldn't have pried like that. I'm just naturally curious, need to work on it." I laughed lightheartedly. She nodded, a smile returning to her face. "Yeah, I understand." She began to think. "Oh, I can't believe I didn't ask already! I presume you're hungry, right?" She couldn't have been more right, for at that moment my stomach grumbled.

"Shhhh!" I said, looking down. "You'll eat when I say so!" She laughed. "I'll take that as a yes. Let me grab a berry for you."

"Okay." She got up and went to a small closet space, which revealed tons of berries and other food within. My eyes exploded from my head upon seeing it. "How much food do you have? And where'd you get it all?" Phloe shrugged. "I just looked around, that's all. Apparently I was quicker than everyone else or just looked around a lot harder, because it seems quite a few pokemon are having trouble getting food." She said as she walked back carrying an Oran Berry in her right hand. She tossed it to me.

"Really?" I asked, catching it. "Why?"

"Well, it seems ever since the meteor shower, things have been a little crazy, to say the least. A lot of meteors hit that night, some destroying sections of forest or travel routes that most of the pokemon used. Therefore, supplies like food are becoming difficult to transport for the time being, resulting in a lot of pokemon going hungry here in Treasure Town and elsewhere."

My mind immediately thought to the last night of my humanity. So the meteors must have struck all over the world. I could only imagine the devastation back in Hoenn, and my home of Fallarbor Town. "So wait, how long has it been since then?" The Treecko thought for a moment. "I think it's been just over a week," she said, still deep in thought. "Yeah, it definitely was about a week ago. Why'd you ask?"

"Well, that's when I was apparently transformed into a Squirtle. Because I was a human that night, then I was attacked…"

"Attacked?" she asked, intrigued. "By what?" I stopped myself just before I answered. Maybe she would actually know. If so, then maybe that could help make things a whole lot easier for me. "Well," I began as we both sat down in two makeshift chairs. "A meteor had crashed right by me, a big one mind you, and it threw me back a ways. I walked up to check it out, and it cracked open to reveal a pokemon I had never seen before." I stopped there, unsure to continue, until Phloe motioned for me to go on.

"Well, it was a weird dragon pokemon with a weird pink aura around it, and two pink spheres in its shoulders. It was huge, by the way, and it stood on two feet with an armored face and blade-like wings. I wouldn't suppose that you would happen to know what kind of pokemon it was, would you?"

"No…" she shook her head. "No I haven't. I've met and seen plenty of pokemon from Treasure Town and beyond, and never have I seen something that fits that. Sorry."

"Nah, its okay. Nothing to worry about. Really, if someday I could figure out what it was, maybe I could try to find it and see if then I can go back home."

After a bit of silence, Phloe jumped up, snapping her fingers with her right hand. "I've got an idea! We could go into town, and talk to Wigglytuff! He may just know, since he was an explorer!" I cocked my head in confusion. "Wigglytuff? Who's that?"

"Remember yesterday I told you about the exploration teams? Wigglytuff is the guildmaster of the main guild in Treasure Town, called Wigglytuff's Guild."

"How original."

She smirked at my comment. "Yeah, well no one seems to care about that. Anyways, Wigglytuff has had plenty of experience with exploring. He's been practically everywhere, and knows more secrets about stuff than most other pokemon."

At the moment, this idea seemed great. That is, until a thought came across my mind. "What if Wigglytuff doesn't know? Then I'll be back to square one." Phloe began to think again. "Well…what about an exploration team?"

"What, we get one to look around for information that could help me?"

"No, what if…we made an exploration team?" I gave her an "are you serious" look, but saw she wasn't joking. "Why?" I asked. "Why would you want to make a team with me? I can't even attack, for crying out loud."

"I saw you use that Bubble attack on the Houndoom yesterday, and you had just arrived here as a pokemon," Phloe countered. "It scared him off, too. Pretty good for someone who just became a pokemon."

"Yeah, but that was a random occurrence. I can't even do it anymore." To prove my point, I started taking deep breaths like I had done, and blowing. Nothing. Phloe nodded in understanding. "Alright, so maybe you can't really attack. No problem, I'm sure they can help at the Guild. It's not like they don't get newbies like you and I all the time."

I perked my head up at the last sentence. "What do you mean 'you and I'?" Was that actually your first fight yesterday?" She smiled sheepishly. "Well…yeah. That was in fact my first battle."

"That was unbelievably good for being a first battle. Seriously, I thought that you had plenty of experience, especially since you put such a good fight against the Houndoom." She blushed in embarrassment. "I wasn't really that good. I mean, I still got this." She pointed to her shattered left arm. "Actually, do you think the Guild will still let me in even with this?" she said nervously.

"Wait, you're getting nervous about this? You've apparently wanted to do this all your life and now you're thinking of backing down? No way, you can't do that. It's your dream to make a team, and darn it, you'll make a team, and I'll join it."

That seemed to uplift her spirits enough to get her going. "You're right. Let's go, if we walk we'll make it into town by midday. Then Wigglytuff's Guild is at the highest point in town, it's built into a hill."

"Well then, let's go!" I shouted cheerfully, taking one last bite of my berry before running to catch up with her, since she had already begun to run out the door.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Treasure Town was definitely something. It was the middle of the day by the time we got there, and the town was bustling. Pokemon of all types and species were walking through to go to the shops or to leave for home. I saw some younger ones playing games out of the way from the crowds. It made me think of Slateport and how crazy it could get there. Phloe reassured me that it was only like this due to the shortages. Thank goodness, I think I would eventually be trampled if it was constantly like this.

I had been taking in my surroundings while Phloe steadily led me to the Guild, wherever it was. Coming to the edge of town, the crowds finally thinned out, and we ended up in front of a large hill with a set of steps leading to the top. "This is it." She said, before carefully walking up, trying not to disturb her arm. I followed closely behind, watching to be sure she didn't trip up with her arm.

A few minutes later we reached the top, which wasn't much. It was neat to see a ways around, with the ocean right behind us, but the top of the hill wasn't special. A giant tent covering with a Wigglytuff designed onto it, a few totem poles and stuff, and a weird grate covering a hole. Go figure.

"So what now?" I asked Phloe. The Treecko merely shrugged. "I don't really know. To be truthful, I've never been up here before."

"Come on! Once again, you've wanted to do this for years yet this is the first time you've been this close? Oh well, I suppose it isn't that big of a deal. So what should we do, just walk in?"

"NO! Just STAND on the grate one at a TIME!" a voice rang out from below, causing us both to jump. Overcoming the shock of the moment, Phloe began to talk.

"Well," Phloe said. "I guess I'll go first." She walked up somewhat confidently, standing right over the grate.

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!" A younger voice called from below. "Whose footprint? Whose footprint?" the first one asked.

"Uh…the footprint is Treecko's! The footprint is Treecko's!"

"Treecko? Very well, step aside and let your friend on." Phloe scurried off, allowing me to nervously step on. "Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!" the young voice called again.

"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?"

"The footprint is…well…ah, the footprint is Squirtle's! The footprint is Squirtle's!"

The other voice sighed. "Sentry Diglett, you are beginning to lag on your timing! You need to work HARDER!" There was a pause for a few seconds as I stepped off of the grate and stood next to Phloe, waiting for what to do next.

"HEY! Are you two still here?" We both replied yes to him. "Good. Come on down, and state your business to Guildmaster's assistant, Chatot, when you come down. He'll be waiting, but don't keep him waiting long!"

I gulped, but went into the tent, steadily walking down the ladder. Once I reached the bottom, I checked to make sure Phloe was doing alright. "Hey, no need to worry about me," she shouted, jumping down right next to me. "See? I can handle myself."

"Good to know." I said. Looking around, I could see a few pokemon in groups walking around, all of which I presumed to be some of the teams here. I would have looked further if a bird hadn't flown up almost right into my face.

"Ah, so you two must be the visitors. Welcome, welcome! Sorry to be in a rush here, but on what business are you two here for?" the bird pokemon, which I saw to be Chatot, asked.

"Well-" I began, before being cut off by Phloe.

"We wanted to join the guild as an exploration team." Chatot looked us both up and down. "Mm-hmm, I see. Very well then, I believe we can do so. We will just need to speak with the Guildmaster first, as he does have the final say on everything. The only problem I can see is…your arm." He gestured to Phloe's broken arm. She looked down, avoiding Chatot's gaze.

"It's fine. Just something that happened yesterday. I was in a fight with a Houndoom and he bit me. It should heal soon."

Chatot nodded, seeming to understand more than we did. "I'll need to speak to Styx and Team Hades about that." He mumbled, not at all audible to us. "Well, of course, on to Guildmaster Wigglytuff. I must warn you though; he isn't exactly in the best of moods at the moment."

"Why's that?" I asked. Chatot winced. "Well, let's just say…when he is missing something valuable, things can sometimes get out of hand."

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"WAAAHHHH!" cried Wigglytuff as Chatot, Phloe, and I walked into his office room. All three of us winced at the intensity of the noise. "Uh, Guildmaster Wigglytuff, you have new recruits." Wigglytuff apparently didn't hear Chatot, as he continued to cry his head off for no reason. "SIR!" he squawked, this time getting the pink balloon pokemon's attention.

"Oh…oh….eh, what? What is it Chatot?" The bird sighed. "Guildmaster, these two have come in hopes of joining the Guild as a new exploration team."

Wigglytuff's face immediately brightened into an almost frighteningly cheerful way. "Oh, well that's wonderful! We can never have too many teams in the guild, no we cannot!"

"…Right. Now, I presume then that you do approve of this. Well then," Chatot said, turning to us. "To become an official exploration team, you must have a team name."

"A name?" I asked, confused. I didn't know about that. I looked to Phloe for help, but it seemed she was deep in thought at the moment. "I've got it!" she said after a second. "How does Team Impact sound?" I looked at her odd. "Why because of the whole thing with the meteor shower and me?"

"Well, kind of. I was thinking that we both had something rather major impact our lives at one time or another…"

"And for you that would be?"

"Not now…just, not until I want to."

"Okay. That's fine. And the name is good to me as well." Chatot nodded his agreement. "So it is Team Impact. Guildmaster, if you please…"

"Alrighty! Well congrats! Team Impact is now official! Yoom-tah!" He shouted with a Hyper Voice, jumping up from his seat with a fist in the air. "And now, new friends, you get your official Treasure Bag and Guild Badge!" Chatot flew over to a shelf in the room, grabbing a small chest and a badge. He carried them back over, handing them to Phloe and me.

"The Treasure Bag will be a valuable little thing to bring along in all of your missions," said Chatot. "You can store any items you may find or be rewarded within it. Plus, it's so secure that only you two can open it! Now, the Guild Badge is a handy device so that when you finish a mission, you may only press the badge once, and both of you, along with anything or anyone else with you, may be brought back to the Guild. Or, if it is ever necessary, and hopefully it should not, it can be used to quickly return back here if something were to go terribly wrong."

"Well that was a mouthful." I said, beginning to get bored. That and I wanted to get out of the room. Wigglytuff's stare made it feel like he was reading my thoughts. "So, is that about it?"

"Only for the moment," answered Chatot. "To let you both know, meal times in the morning and evening are regularly scheduled, so be back in the dining hall by sundown. Chimecho always prepares well for the teams. And besides that, you'll find out more tomorrow when your team will be assigned their first mission. For the moment, I would just wait around in the main hall here until we get a room ready for your team. I'm sure we have a few left around here…" he said, flying off and out of the room to look.

Phloe looked at me and shrugged, taking the badge and walking out. I followed, picking up the Treasure Bag, which was lighter than I imagined, and leaving the room. As we exited, another team entered Wigglytuff's room, one composed of a Beedrill, a Gligar, and a Qwilfish. Each was carrying a satchel full of the shiniest and most beautiful looking apples I had ever seen. Before I could get a better look, the team shut the door behind them. It was only a few moments later that I heard Wigglytuff clearly shouting another "Yoom-tah!"

We both took a seat down against a wall, waiting for Chatot to get back to us. A few pokemon stopped by and greeted us, if but for a moment. I really was finding the whole thing rather strange. I still hadn't completely adjusted to becoming a Squirtle and living among pokemon. I really just wanted to get to the room or somewhere secluded and take some time to think some more.

I didn't have to wait too much longer before Chatot flew back to us. "Follow me," he ordered, leading us out of the room and down a hallway. "Sunflora has gone ahead with the preparations to your team's room. I hope it works, but then again, all rooms are standard. Feel free to decorate if you want to, just don't complete destroy it. We will need to use it again for another team eventually." As he spoke we went down a floor until we reached one last hallway. "Let's see…ah, here we are." Chatot announced to us, stopping in front of a door. "Your living quarters, for however long your team may be here. Go ahead, make yourselves comfortable, and enjoy the rest of the day. You will be woken tomorrow and assigned for your team's first mission."

With that the bird flew off, leaving us standing in front of the door. "Well…let's go on in." Phloe said, turning the doorknob. Walking in, it really wasn't too much. There were two beds randomly placed, one on either side of the room, among a few pieces of makeshift furniture like several chairs and a table. A medium-sized window let in a cool breeze, as well as the mid-afternoon sun.

"What should we do now?" I asked Phloe, setting the Treasure Bag down. She walked over and placed the badge inside of it. "Dunno. Want to just walk around town for a while?" I shook my head, walking to one of the beds and dropping back onto it. "Maybe in a little while. I really need to clear my head for the moment, this is just so crazy."

"Why's that?"

"Do you even know what this feels like to be thrust into this when I was a human all of my life? I'm sure I'll get over it, but right now it just seems so weird. Pokemon all over the place, living life in such a calm and inviting society. Living life as a human was never like this. There was always chaos and calamity, not that there isn't any here," I rocked on the back of my shell rubbing my temples as I spoke to her. "And then there's the problem with the fact that I WAS a human only a week ago. How am I to explain that to everyone? Oh yeah, I was a human until that meteor shower, that's why I can't attack or do anything right. That's why I'm such a weird little Squirtle."

"Hey," Phloe said, trying to calm me. "It's not going to be that bad. Just give it a few days, and things will start to get better. I could help you a bit with learning how to attack, or maybe the Guild knows of some special place to train. All we have to do is ask, since we're now official members. As for your humanity thing, I suppose we don't really have to tell anyone," She began to think. "Then again, we should talk to Wigglytuff about this. He may know something, like I had said earlier."

I chuckled at the last statement. "Yes, because after meeting him I can totally take him seriously and trust his level of intelligence."

"Yes, you should. Now come on, Tide." She grabbed my arm with her free one, dragging my back along the ground. "We'll go talk to him right now. I'm sure he's not terribly busy."

* * *

**Oh yes, how generic and typical of a PMD fic. Hey, at least the stuff I'm doing is setting the stage for later events. Just wait and see. And I still have openings for two more teams. Thanks to SakuraFurude for her submitted team.  
Here's the format so you guys don't have to go back:  
**Team Name  
Members w/Gender, Names, Species  
Background/Experience  
Moves  
**And that's it for now. Remember, just two more teams will be accepted. I may open up for more in the future, but for right now I want to start small. I have four major teams of my own creation, and currently one of three submitted ones.  
Review if you'd like. Don't care, but it'd be uplifting to me.**


	6. Disturbance

**Not much to say here. I'm trying to keep one chapter ahead of what I update, so I always have another in reserve. Once I get to two chapters from here, the next will be up. Now please do enjoy this, even though Deoxys remains MIA.**

* * *

Chapter 5: Disturbance

It seemed Phloe had been right. Wigglytuff wasn't busy at all. At least, I don't believe he was.

"Oh, hello friends!" we were greeted as we walked into his room. To me, he seemed oaf-like. Really incompetent, but what am I to question if he was the guildmaster. We walked up to him, and waited to speak. It seemed that at the moment he was still paying attention, if not a little…out of it. He had one of the beautiful apples I had seen, except he had it somehow spinning on his head as he looked up in fascination. This place was becoming weirder by the second.

After a minute of waiting, Phloe coughed loud enough to get Wigglytuff to pay attention to us. "Oh, sorry friends. It's just that I missed my Perfect Apples oh so much! And Team Sting was kind enough to get so many for me! Don't you think that's wonderful?"

"Er…yeah, I suppose so," I said, confused by the sudden question. "Uh, Guildmaster…I, uh, I really wanted to tell you something. Something rather…important." This got the puffball's complete interest. "Oh? Important you say? Well go ahead, I'm listening!"

"Yeah, well you see, I…uh, how to say this," I mumbled, searching for the right words. "Well, I guess I wanted to let you know that I'm kind of new here."

"Well, you and your friend are part of a new team."

"No, that's not it," I shook my head in annoyance. "I just wanted to let you know that, I'm very new to this area. I, well…I haven't always been a pokemon. I've been this way for a few days actually. Before that…well, I was-"

"What he's trying to say is, he was human before this." Phloe finished for me. I turned to her, but she just gave me a look. "You took too long. Just get to the whole point."

"Yeah, it's exactly what Phloe said. I'm actually a human, but something weird happened during the meteor shower and…this is where I'm at now."

Wigglytuff did not seem confused like I had expected. Or frightened. Or angry. In fact, he still had his same goofy grin plastered across his face. "A human you say?" he asked. "Well, in all my years I've never heard of that. Definitely strange, yes indeed. But don't worry friend, you're fine. It's not as if there was something terrible with you as a human."

I laughed a bit, the tension beginning to break. "I'm glad you understand Guildmaster. I was afraid you might have taken it wrong. Thanks!" I was just about to turn around and leave until Phloe grabbed my shell and pulled me back. "You forgot to tell him about what happened before. Remember, he might be able to help you!"

"Oh right!" I said, slapping myself for forgetting. Turning back to Wigglytuff, I began talking again. "I didn't mention this before, I had forgotten. We both had wondered if it were possible if you could help me with something that neither of us could figure out." Wigglytuff put on a big grin. "Well go on, friend! I'm sure I can help with whatever is the problem!"

"…Right. Now, this had happened in the last moments of when I was a human, and I'm pretty sure it had something to do with my current state. There was a strange pokemon in front of me, and I wasn't sure of what it was. Therefore I thought you could help me. You see, it was a large dragon pokemon on two legs with some weird blade-like wings. Its head kinda stretched out, and it also had two weird pink orbs on its shoulders. To top it all off, it was glowing pink. You wouldn't happen to know of a pokemon like that, would you?"

Wigglytuff searched my face for any hint of a joke or lie. Seeing none, he began to think. "I'm sorry friend," he said. "But I've never seen a pokemon like that. If I were to guess, it might have been a Legendary. They are pokemon of great power, unlike that of any other pokemon in the world. And if it had turned you into a pokemon, then it may have just been that."

"So, do you know of any Legendaries? Any clues that could help Tide out?" Phloe inquired. Wigglytuff shook his head. "I'm sorry. I don't. But I will look into it, if that helps! I mean, anything for my friends, and especially for ones in need!"

"Thanks!" Phloe and I waved goodbye, this time actually leaving Wigglytuff's office, leaving him to once more become hypnotized by his Perfect Apples. I would need to get one someday, to know what it was that had Wigglytuff so obsessed with them.

Once we were outside and in the main area of the Guild, I asked Phloe, "So what now?" She shrugged. "I guess we could try and meet some people here in the Guild. It's getting later in the afternoon, so I'm sure that the dinner will be served soon enough."

"Sounds good to me." I said. We both began to walk across the large room to the ladder heading downstairs. Being me, I was lost in my thoughts, still trying to make sense of everything that had happened so far. This caused me to walk right into someone. "Excuse me, sorry." I said absentmindedly. Phloe became wide-eyed and pulled me out of the way and next to her. "What was that for?" I asked, but she only pointed to who I had walked into.

"Well, looks as if the scum joined the Guild," the Houndoom, Styx, growled. Standing to either side of him were a Weavile and a Dusclops. "Is this…who you were…talking about?" wheezed the Dusclops. I could tell he was male from the voice. Styx nodded to him. "Indeed it is, Omen. The _human_ has gone and infiltrated the guild. And with him is his little savior," he licked his chops. "And she would have made a wonderful meal, but this freak stopped me. I still need to return the favor." He said with such hate that it made me shake a bit.

The Weavile next to him walked up to me and put a clawed hand under my chin. I was rooted to the spot in fear as it slid the claws up and off of my chin. "Aw, this little guy was a human? Styx, you can't be right. But," she put a claw to her cheek in thought. "You've never been one to lie, especially to our team. So…should we kill him now?"

"No, not yet, Demi," Styx said. "He just joined this Guild. He has no idea what he's gotten himself into." I gulped in fear. "We'll just let him keep his life for now. And then when he comes begging for mercy because of how unprecedented his situation was, then we'll strike. Isn't that right little Squirtle?"

"His name is Tide." Phloe stepped in defiantly. Styx glared at her. "Stay out of this, Treecko. That is, unless you would like to see me actually get to feast on that arm of yours..."

"Hey now! Team Hades, enough harassing the new exploration team!" shrieked Chatot as he swooped in from Wigglytuff's office. "I do believe that your mission was successful, though. However, as the situation may be, Guildmaster would like to see all three of you in his office for some reported incidents." Styx stared angrily at us both as he and his team walked away with Chatot. "You can expect a possible suspension of your exploration team status for a few days if Guildmaster sees it so…"

Phloe and I sighed in relief after Team Hades was escorted off. "Tide, I'm really not too sure about this now," Phloe said shakily. "I mean, I'm sure we can be a great team. But with Styx here and with a full blown team at that, I'm afraid. I think he may actually try to finish the job."

"What? No way! I mean, I'm as afraid as you are, well actually a little more," I said admittedly. "But that's no reason to back down! I'm sure that Chatot and Wigglytuff have our backs. Come on now, I thought we were going to meet some of the teams."

Phloe smiled at me, completely reassured. "Thanks for that. You are right, too. It's not like I should worry since we are part of the guild. Wigglytuff will help us."

"If he's not distracted by Perfect Apples." I laughed. Phloe joined in for a moment. "Alright. So how about we go down and see what's up-"

"Dinner is ready! Everyone report to the mess hall for their meal!" a soft voice somehow shouted throughout the entire Guild. It sounded almost like a set of wind chimes. We barely had any time to react before pokemon from every area of the Guild came running, nearly flattening Phloe and I. "You okay Tide?" Phloe yelled over the noise of the pokemon. "Yeah! Doing just fine!" I replied sarcastically. Within seconds, the stampede ended, leaving us alone in the main hall. Chatot flapped out of Wigglytuff's office with Team Hades following him.

"Team Impact? Aren't you going to join everyone for dinner?" he asked. I looked toward Styx, Omen, and Demi. The latter two didn't look my way, but Styx was glowering at me. Yep, I was dead meat when he had the chance.

"Uh, yeah we were. We just got caught up in the rush of everyone making their way to the mess hall." Chatot shook his head. "Ugh, I've been trying to get everyone to be more orderly with this for months. It seems we know where that has gotten me. Nonetheless, follow me. I have a feeling that you both don't know where the mess hall is, am I correct?"

"Yeah." We both mumbled, trying to avoid the faces of Team Hades. Chatot nodded inattentively before flying off with Team Hades closely behind him. "Come on, Team Impact! This way!" he shouted, pausing momentarily for us to keep close. He led us throughout various areas of the guild before finally entering a large doorway. Team Hades went ahead in with Chatot escorting them. "Well, let's go." Phloe said finally.

Walking in, I was immediately overwhelmed. Long tables stretched across the length of the room, with dozens of pokemon teams occupying random spots all around. Phloe and I looked around rather nervously trying to find a spot until we heard someone shout, "Hey, newbie team?"

"Yeah?" Phloe replied. I looked around and saw who had spoken. A few tables to our right was the team I had seen earlier with the apples. The Beedrill was waving us down with his drill hands. "Come here and sit with us. We got room!" The Gligar and Qwilfish with him nodded, although both were too busy eating berries to actually notice much.

Phloe shrugged and began walking to them. "Come on, Tide. It's not like we really had any other place to sit." I was about to object until I looked around and saw Styx's sneering face halfway across the room. "Uh, coming!" I shakily yelled back. We both took seats by the team and after a few tense seconds, began to grab a few berries and apples to eat. The Beedrill nodded in our direction.

"Thanks for taking up on my offer," he said. "Not many do. They think I'll jab them with one of these." He stabbed upwards with one of his drills for emphasis. The Gligar snorted. "You do." He said. The Beedrill looked at him irritatingly before jabbing the purple scorpion in the side.

"Yeow! What was that for?" he said while rubbing the sore area. The Beedrill snickered. "For spreading false rumors. I only jab my teammates, mostly because it's a riot to see your reaction!" The Gligar started mumbling nonsense to him, clearly annoyed by the Beedrill's behavior. After he collected himself, the Beedrill pointed to Phloe and me. "So what are your names, newbies? Haven't seen you around Treasure Town before…"

"I'm Phloe," my partner said. "And you probably haven't seen me since I lived out in the forest surrounding Treasure Town. I've stopped in from time to time, but usually I stick around out there." Pin nodded understandingly. "And you?" he pointed at me.

"Oh, well my name is…Tide. Yeah, Tide," I stuttered slightly as I said this. "And really…I don't know where I'm from." The Gligar gave me a look. "Don't know where you're from? What, amnesia or something?"

"Er, well it's harder to explain than that. I really don't want to go in depth about it." The three of them exchanged doubtful glances, but thankfully left it at that. "Well, I believe introductions from our side are in order," the Beedrill said, breaking the tension. "My name is Pin, and I'm the leader of this exploration team."

The Gligar then grinned as he pointed at himself with a claw. "I'm Scorp." The Qwilfish looked at me suspiciously, but dropped it a second later. "And I'm Puffer." Pin made himself as proud as he could do to his small mouth and buzzed up above the table, in between his two team members. "And together the three of us make Team Sting! Hyah!" He thrust one of his drills out dramatically, with Scorp and Puffer posing next to him.

Phloe and I looked at each other. We could easily tell that we were both thinking of the same thing: these guys were nuts. "Uh, nice to meet you three…" Phloe said. We both turned away and resumed eating as they did as well. It was rather loud in the mess hall with teams chatting with each other constantly about missions. Pin tapped my should with one of his drills after a few minutes.

"Hey, you guys haven't heard about we saw the other day, have you?" I shook my head. "What was it?"

Pin grinned as best as he could. "Truthfully, the three of us are wondering if we believe what we saw. It was weird, to say the least. It almost looked like a human, but it was orange and blue. And it was _flying_. Without wings or anything. Faster than anything I've seen, how about you two?" Scorp and Puffer shook their heads. "Nope, faster than any flying pokemon," Puffer said. "We actually think that it has something to do with the meteors in some way."

"Really?" Phloe asked, suddenly jumping into the conversation. "Why do think that?" The members of Team Sting looked at each other uneasily. "Well," began Pin. "We don't really have solid proof of that, but we just got the feeling that something connected the two. I mean, two strange things coming shortly between each other? There's more than a coincidence to that."

"Yeah…" said Phloe as she looked at me curiously. I could tell that she was beginning to think more about the meteor storm. I was too. But my thoughts were interrupted as Chimecho began to make a ringing sound that silenced everyone. "Thank you, Chimecho," Chatot said. "Now excuse me everyone. I know some teams are out at the moment on missions, but these announcements cannot wait. Guildmaster, if you please."

"Okay!" Wigglytuff smiled. "Just two really important things that I have to announce friends! First of all, Team Sting has reported a sighting of a strange new pokemon. In a few days there'll be a poster with a recreation of what they saw. If anyone sees this pokemon again, please report it immediately! It is important to see if it's a friend or not!" As he ended this, his smile became even bigger, and in my opinion, more frightening. "And on to equally big news! We have a new team joining us today. Everyone please give a warm welcome to Phloe and Tide of Team Impact!" he shouted, motioning for Phloe and me to stand up.

Applause rose up from the ranks of the pokemon, a little too much of a greeting in my opinion. My face was a bit red from embarrassment, causing Phloe to giggle a bit. "Hey, I don't like bringing attention to myself!" I tried to shout to her over the noise. After it died down, we retook our seats. Wigglytuff waved to us. "Oh and before I forget-" I couldn't believe what Wigglytuff was saying. "-Tide over there is new to Treasure Town. He was a human before the meteor storm, and now here he is! So please go easy on him since he's still finding his way around.

I was out of there before anyone could even turn to look at me. I thought I heard Phloe call me out, but that was quickly drowned out by Styx cackling louder than anything else in the room. Darn my stubby legs, they couldn't carry me as fast as I would have liked. Even with that shortfall, I made it back to my team's room, shutting the door and lying down on my bed. What had Wigglytuff done? Now I may have very well have lost the trust of anyone but Phloe. Styx was probably right about what he had said.

It seemed like hours passed before I heard the door open again. I knew it was Phloe, but I said nothing, deciding to pretend to be asleep. "Tide?" she asked quietly. I continued to ignore her. I didn't want to talk about what had happened. Not yet anyways. "I don't care if you're asleep or not," she continued. "But I want to let you know that I don't think anyone hates you. Except for Team Hades, of course. But Pin and Scorp had wondered why you ran off. They didn't seem to think any different of you." She sighed. "Look, nonetheless, I spoke to some of the other teams about this. They didn't care. They don't know who you are, so they said that it didn't matter. They wanted me to tell you that."

Phloe apparently went to bed herself at that point, closing her eyes and just barely began to doze off. My mind had been abuzz from what she told me. The others didn't really care right now? Well, I suppose I'd find out soon enough. Satisfied for the moment, I whispered in a barely audible tone, "Thank you."

* * *

**Meh, not sure if I liked this or not. You guys be the judge. Next chapter, I promise, there'll be a Deoxys scene. Maybe not much, but enough to progress him some. Otherwise, we remain focused upon Tide and Phloe.  
And please send in OC teams/missions. Here's the team form again:**  
Team Name  
Members w/Gender, Names, Species  
Background/Experience  
Moves

**See you all next time!**


	7. Beginnings

**I'm sorry it has been so long since the last update! I've been terribly busy with so much stuff, I've had little time to work on my stories. That, and I've felt the necessity to see 9 and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Go see them, they're great films!**

**But here's a long chapter, please enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 6: Beginnings

I woke up the next morning to perhaps something worse than what I had gone through with any alarm clock or even from parents. "HEY! TIME to WAKE up! That means NOW!" I groaned with exhaustion, sitting up and looking at the doorway. Standing there was an irate Loudred that gave me a funny look. "Ah, you must be that human they've been talking about. I don't see anything special, you sure you didn't hit yourself really hard on the head?"

It was my turn to give him a funny look. "Well, unless I somehow completely imagined the last sixteen years of my life, then I'm positive that I was human." Loudred continued to stare at me doubtfully before turning around and leaving. "Whatever. Make sure your partner there is up, breakfast will be ready shortly, and then your team will be assigned missions for today." I looked at Phloe, who was surprisingly still asleep with her busted arm lying across her stomach. 'How did she sleep through that?' I wondered.

I stood up, my mind beginning to remember everything from yesterday, especially after Wigglytuff's bumbling mistake. At least Loudred didn't hate me like Styx did, but he still found me odd. What a way to start off here. "Hey," I said, shaking Phloe. "You know it's time to wake up."

"Ungh…give it a rest, Clove. Just…another hour…is all…" she mumbled. 'Who on earth is Clove?' I thought, completely bewildered. I began to shake her even harder now, but not before a punch was delivered to the side of my face. "…Ow." I said with one eye twitching. Phloe groggily turned her head to look at me. "Oh!" she exclaimed, removing her fist from my jaw. "Sorry, Tide. I didn't really mean to do that."

"Yeah, I know," I said, rubbing my jaw as she stood up. "The Loudred here woke me up and told me to get you up. But I now know that we need to come up with something else in case this happens again," I said, putting my mind to work. "I got it," I said suddenly. "I'll just jab you with a stick until you wake me up."

"Then I'll just grab the stick and whack you with it in the head."

"You've just got to ruin my ideas, don't you?" I asked, pretending to be offended. Phloe shrugged. "As long as we're partners here, then I'll keep it up. At least to the bad ideas. Now come on, let's go to breakfast. I'm not going to be eating scraps this morning, especially with our first mission." She began to walk to the door. As she opened it, she turned around to me. "Aren't you coming? I know you've got to be hungry."

I sighed heavily. "After last night…well, you get my point. Loudred at least wasn't too critical about me. He just said he saw nothing special." Phloe put her right hand out as if to say "well there you go." "I don't know if you heard me last night," she said. "But it seemed most of the teams were indifferent to the…revelation, that Wigglytuff gave." I wasn't buying it, and it was showing. "Come on Tide," she pleaded, walking over to me and grabbing my arm. "If you don't want to come out on your own, then I'll help you. And imagine the reactions of everyone else in the guild…"

I nearly lost it there. I quickly shook off Phloe's hand and wobbled onto my feet from my back. "Okay, okay! I'll believe you and give this a shot. But…I really don't want to face it if anyone else decides to hold a grudge against me for my past." I began to walk out, Phloe following right behind me. "They haven't really gotten to know you," she argued. "If you weren't so afraid that you'd be rejected, then maybe you would be able to handle this better."

"I'm handling it fine!" I said, continuing to walk down the hall. At this point, we had managed to turn a few heads at our conversation. Phloe sighed. "See, you're just overreacting. And beginning to cause a scene."

"No, they're looking at me because I was a human. They think I'm a freak." At this point we had managed to get into the mess hall and sat down. I look around nervously at the other pokemon. A few were staring in my direction, some whispering to one another. I could see Styx over on the other side of the room. I couldn't tell if he was laughing or growling at me. Probably both.

Two pokemon, a Shelgon and a Vibrava walked up to the both of us just as we were about to eat. "Uh, excuse us," said the Shelgon. Phloe and I turned to see what he wanted. "Yeah, I was wondering…were you really a human before?"

"Did you beat innocent pokemon?!"

"Quiet, Sant!" The Shelgon yelled at his partner. The Vibrava, a girl by the sound of her voice, flinched at her partner's scolding. "Sorry for that," the Shelgon said. "Sant here…she doesn't know when not to ask certain things. So just forget she ever said anything."

"But I wanted to kno-"

"Enough!" The Shelgon blasted a quick shot of Dragonbreath at his partner. Throughout the entire time this happened, Phloe and I kept exchanging glances with each other. We were both thinking the same thing. This team had problems.

"Listen," Phloe began, stepping down from her seat and turning the two around. "Tide…he doesn't really want to talk about this right now."

"So did he do that to your arm?"

"No he didn't!" Phloe snapped. This got Sant to immediately shut her mouth. "This was from something else. He just doesn't want to talk about what he was before with anyone. Can't you tell that it's hurting him, too?"

The Shelgon looked me up and down one last time. "I guess you're right…okay, let's go Sant. We'll leave him alone; he probably is putting up with enough already."

After the two left, Phloe took her seat back next to me. She seemed to be flustered, but any sign of it disappeared moments later after she began to eat once again. "Hey," I said. "Thanks for that."

She smiled. "No problem. At least you didn't lose your nerve there in front of those two. I mean, what did I tell you? They weren't there to be mean to you, definitely not in the way Team Hades is."

"Yes, that's exactly why the Vibrava kept pestering me about if I beat pokemon. Really? What kind of rumors do they hear? It's not like humans regularly harm pokemon. In fact, the only ones that would are criminals."

"You know what I mean," Phloe replied. "They were actually being kind of nice, at least the Shelgon was somewhat. The Vibrava there, Sant…well, I can see your point. But I would guess she's always like that."

"Joy of joys. Another exploration team I'm just thrilled about meeting."

"Hey, Phloe and Tide! You mind if we sit next to you two? Of course not, common courtesy, right?" A Beedrill, who I recognized to be Pin, yelled out to us. He took a seat right next to me, with his teammates, Scorp and Puffer, joining on the other side of the table. "Speaking of other exploration teams…" I mumbled so that only Phloe could hear me. She reached over with her left arm and gave me a jab in the shoulder. "Ow! Sorry!"

"Huh? About what?" Pin asked. I turned back to him. "Oh, nothing. Just something between me and Phloe. Pin nodded and turned to the berries in front of him. Scorp and Puffer had already begun eating, the both of them ravenously eating what was in front of them. "Come on you two! You're supposed to wait for the leader before you eat!"

"We got back from a ridiculous mission last night, and you hardly let us eat then!" Scorp argued, still wolfing down the berries. I could see that Phloe was slightly repulsed by their behavior. "So now we're making up for lost food intake! Besides, I think Chatot was going to make us go for a convict today."

Pin groaned. "Again? That'll be the fourth one in two weeks!" He muttered a few complaints to himself, as well as a few curses towards Chatot before beginning to eat.

After a bit, Phloe and I had both finished, as had at least half of the other teams in the room. Most of them had begun to head off, and we were going to follow suit. I had been fortunate to have not had any more confrontations with other pokemon about my past. Then again, it's not like it would have mattered since I only remembered moments before becoming a Squirtle. Unfortunately for me, Team Sting wasn't going to let me off that easily.

Just as Phloe and I stood up to go, Pin tapped me on the shoulder with a drill. "Hey, Tide, listen here for a second. I'm speaking for my team as a whole when I say this: we don't care whether or not you were a human before you were a Squirtle. Jeez, for all we know, you may just be crazy. But that's beside the point. The point is, we have full trust in you that you're a good person, and being a former human does not change that." Scorp and Puffer nodded in agreement.

Hearing this from him made me feel much better, to be truthful. I knew at least they trusted me. Perhaps Phloe was right; maybe I had been overreacting with the situation…

"Hey, thanks Pin," I said. "That does mean a lot to me. To know that at least some pokemon here trust me. I was afraid that…well, most wouldn't."

"I know. I saw Team Hades reaction last night about you. Seems you know them?"

I grimaced. "Let's just say that Styx was the second to find me as a pokemon, and he wasn't too happy to figure out I was a human."

"Well, Styx has been that way. He apparently had some kind of an incident a few years ago and…the result has made him a lot nastier towards others, especially when humans are mentioned. No one really knows what happened, but plenty of rumors go around the guild."

"Odd." I said, letting what Pin had told me sink in. So something had happened to Styx before that brought him to this state. I could only imagine what. But before I could ask any more questions, Pin began pushing me and Phloe away. "I believe that that's enough for now! You two better get to seeing Chatot about your team's first mission. Best not to keep him waiting. That bird can get quite the temper when he's forced to wait."

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Arriving outside of Wigglytuff's office a short while later, Phloe and I began to wait around. Mostly, this was because we were just a little bit nervous to knock on the door in case we disturbed Wigglytuff. "Well…go on Tide. Be a gentleman!"

"Oh come on! You can't be serious about trying that!" I countered. The Treecko was about to say something back to me when Chatot's squawks caught our attention from behind. "Ah, Team Impact! Good morning to you both!" We both nodded to him, saying quick "good mornings" to him in return. "I believe you both are ready for your first day of missions, am I correct?"

"Yes, sir." We both said. This seemed to please him as he gained a smug expression on his face. "Good. Now, follow me to the job board." He fluttered upstairs with Phloe and me following right after him. Up the ladder we went and found Chatot perched on top of a board on one of the walls. It seemed to be littered with tons of papers, the contents of each we could only begin to guess. "This is the job board. Every day, your team is expected to come here and take one or more jobs from the multiple selections here. It is updated daily by another guild member, Dugtrio."

"So, we just come and take at least one of these missions every day? That's it?" asked Phloe. "Well, not exactly," replied Chatot. "You see, the missions are given difficulties based upon the danger of the Mystery Dungeon as well as upon the overall difficulty we feel it deserves. Therefore, rookie teams like yours usually stick to D ranks, sometimes even C ranks. As you work your way up, you can take on tougher missions, eventually making it up to the S ranks. Got that?"

We had both lost interest in Chatot's speech and placed our attention upon the job board, attempting to decide what mission we wanted to take. "Erm…okay, good luck Team Impact. I would definitely advise though, that you choose something that wouldn't be particularly straining upon you both because of your arm injury," he motioned at Phloe, "and your…well, lack of experience, I should say." I looked down in slight shame, fully knowing what he meant. "Well, I suppose I shall leave your team alone for now. Good luck once again; I hope your first mission ends successfully." With that, the strange music parrot flew back to the lower floor of the guild.

I looked back to the board after he left. "So what mission do you think we should take? Right now, I think this one looks good." I pointed to a scribbled piece of paper. It read, _'Please get my Reviver Seed back for me! I lost it when I was getting out of Beach Cave. I think it was on basement floor 3. Please help! Signed, Izzy the Spinda_.'

"Sounds easy enough, plus it's got a D rating for it," I told Phloe. "What do you think?"

"It's better than what I could find. Which is, before you ask, nothing."

"Alright then. We'll take it!" I concluded, ripping the mission paper off of the board. "Okay, now to just put this away in the…oh crud, we forgot the Treasure Bag and stuff back in our room! I'll be right back!" I shouted hurriedly, madly dashing down a hallway to where the rooms were. I quickly went back once I got the Bag and Badge from our room, running back up to meet with Phloe. "This is what happens when you worry over trivial things." She said to me. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." I rolled my eyes, slinging the Treasure Bag over my shoulders. "Let's go. Sooner we get the mission done, the better." Saying nothing more, we both climbed up and out of the Guild, although this proved to be rather difficult for Phloe with only one usable arm.

We walked down to the bottom of the guild's cliff and found a map posted on the side of the pathway for exploration teams. Phloe took a quick peek at where the Beach Cave was, and without any moment wasted, we headed off to the south where it lay.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The Beach Cave wasn't terribly bad. Sure, it was dark and gloomy, as well as being quite damp, with plenty of puddles and even underground ponds and lakes. It also seemed to be quite empty and rather…dull. "So, this is the life of an explorer? Exciting." I said dryly. Phloe gave me a look. "This is what happens when you don't give things a chance. Hmm, sound familiar to something that occurred, what? Not even a day ago?"

"I'm getting better; I already trust a good deal of the guild. At least most of them, just not Team Hades for obvious reasons."

"See, you just need to give things a better shot, and plenty of time."

"And how much time do you expect me to give into this?" I asked. As if Arceus himself had answered, a rather angry Shellos crawled out from under a rock in front of us, blocking our path. The pink snail thing hissed at the both of us, causing us both to back up a few steps. "Happy now?" Phloe asked me. "Uh, define that for me. Because right now, I'm freaked out for my life." The Shellos continued to stare us down, not moving any further towards us. "It isn't going to move for us any time soon," Phloe observed. "So it looks as if we'll be fighting our way through this. Just what explorations teams are about!"

"What happened to the treasure hunting and stuff?"

"Don't question me now! This thing isn't going to be waiting for us anymore by the looks of things!" Sure enough, the Shellos hissed once more before raising its front forward and slapping it into the mud beneath it. This resulted in a spray of mud going directly into my eyes, temporarily blinding me. "Gah! That hurts!"

"Hang in there Tide, I'll try to take it on for now!" my partner said while I rapidly grinded my fists into my closed eyes. Who knew mud could sting, even if it wasn't that effective upon me! A few minutes later and I had just about managed to get the mud out. From what I could hear, the battle wasn't going terribly bad. Phloe did have the type advantage going for her, so I was confident things would end well. At least, I was for a moment. "Tide, could use your help right about now! Being one-armed at the moment isn't exactly working for me!" I opened my eyes, thankfully with clear vision. I could see Phloe back against the wall with the Shellos standing right in front of her preparing a Mud Bomb. She looked to be slightly fatigued, but I couldn't see anything really hurting her much. "Hold on there, Phloe! I'm coming to help!" I yelled, running at the Shellos. I wasn't really thinking much at the moment, just to help my partner and not let her get injured.

The slug pokemon was caught completely by surprise as I rammed into its side, taking out the rest of its energy. It crashed into the opposing cave wall and slumped in a heap unconscious. Phloe sighed in relief and turned to me. "Thanks for that Tide. Glad you could finally help."

"Yeah, no problem. And it looks like I just figured out how to use a Tackle."

"Was it really that hard?"

I blushed. "Er…well, I guess not. But that's beside the point. Let's keep going! We got at least two more floors before we can actually go and find that seed." I hefted up the Treasure Bag and ran off down the cave. "I see that the enthusiasm has returned to you…" Phloe muttered before running off to catch up with me.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The next floor wasn't very different. Truthfully, it looked almost the exact same. Then again, what was I to expect in some cave? A bunch of gems dotting the walls? Anyways, we encountered a few more rogue pokemon that got in our way. A Kabuto and two more Shellos, to be precise. Thanks to what I was figuring out, we were able to take them out rather easily, but not without some damage. We were both becoming bruised up, and we still had another floor to go.

"The next floor has the seed," panted Phloe. "We go down and get it, and we can get out of this place."

We both hopped downstairs, and surprise, surprise! It looked the exact same as before. "Let's go, the seed is around here somewhere. We just have to look." Phloe said. She creeped down a pathway to our left with me flanking her, making sure nothing came up from behind us. The corridor opened up into an expansive room, bigger than any other we'd been in so far. But no seed. There was two angry Corsola, but no seed.

Phloe wasted no time. She ran up to one of them and used a Pound with her tail. It screeched and immediately collapsed. It seemed this one was rather weak. That only infuriated its friend even more, as the thing began to use Tackle on her. Now, I figured Phloe was a tough Treecko. After seeing her fight Styx, I had come to expect a lot. Since she was now being struck down by an irate Corsola, that changed. But it was all thanks to the fact that she was still recovering from her injuries that Styx had inflicted. She fell to one knee, grunting as she tried to get up. I ran at the Corsola and tried another Tackle, hitting it in the side and causing it to fall over. Unfortunately, they didn't experience the same issue as I did, since the thing flipped right back onto its feet.

Before it could do anything else, Phloe began to use Absorb upon it, sucking the last of its energy back into her. The Corsola didn't stand a chance, and promptly collapsed. "Now I'm feeling a bit better," she grinned. "Let's finish this mission."

We tried a few more passageways that lead into at least four more rooms. No such luck in finding the seed. We were about to give up when we checked one last area. Unbelievably, we could see a yellow seed just sitting near a corner of the room to our right. Thankfully there were no enemies around, so we ran quickly to grab it in case any did show up. "Finally! This nightmare is over!" I cheered. My happiness soon turned to gloom when I realized something else. "And even more nightmares are soon to follow. Aw, great." I slapped my forehead in frustration. In spite of our states, both me and Phloe managed to laugh a bit at my behavior.

"Yeah but we'll have fun with this. It will be a grand adventure as we get to explore so many different places across the land," she said as she picked up the Reviver Seed and put it into the Treasure Bag, pulling the badge out in exchange. "Ready to go back?"

"I don't know, I'll let you take one good guess." I grumbled. Phloe laughed as she pressed the badge, transporting us back to Wigglytuff's Guild.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" A Spinda, whom I could only guess to be our client, cried. He cradled the Reviver Seed in one of his arms as he shook both of our hands. "Ah, now here's your reward!" He hefted a bulging sack of money that I graciously took into my own arms.

"We…get paid this? For a…seed?" I gaped at the sheer amount of the money. Phloe was equally mesmerized by it. The Spinda in front of us nodded happily. "You don't realize how important this seed is to me! It's a gift from my family; I never want to be separated from it! Thanks again explorers!" He said before running up the ladder, at least as well as he could. On his way he nearly ran into another team and the wall.

As soon as we were sure that Izzy had gotten up and out without killing himself or anyone else, we returned our attention to the sack of money we had been paid. "I think I'm beginning to like this life as a pokemon much more now." I said, practically drooling at the shining coins.

"I know what you mean," Phloe replied. "Now just what to use it on…" But before we could even begin to ponder the possibilities, Chatot suddenly arrived from nowhere. "Team Impact, welcome back! And within good timing, it's already about dinner!"

"Already dinner? We weren't there that long…were we?" I asked. To be sure, I dropped the Treasure Bag and ran to look out the nearest window. Sure enough, the sky was already a golden color as the sun was about to set. "That's how Mystery Dungeons can work. They don't follow the normal laws of nature, and generally do whatever they want, including completely redesigning themselves every time you go through one. Now that that's understood…the guild's pay share must be collected." He promptly swiped the bag out of my hands and pulled out what probably wasn't even a tenth of the money we earned, which he handed back to us. "Here you go, a fitting payment I presume."

"But…this is hardly anything. Why can't we have the rest?" Chatot sighed. "Everything here needs to be paid for you know. Thus, the way we manage to get the payment is through our exploration teams. We get most of the money for supplies like food and whatnot while you get a fraction to spend on what your team needs. Now that everything is cleared up, I will say good job to you two again. Especially with your two current issues, you seemed to have done surprisingly well. I suppose you'll best go off and have your injuries checked over for the time being, and I believe by then Chimecho will be ready with dinner."

"Okay, thanks Chatot." Phloe waved him off, and turned to me. I was currently frowning at the money that we had leftover. "Okay, life as a pokemon just became bad again." I concluded.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Deoxys woke suddenly yet calmly. He surveyed the area around him with interest. Unsurprisingly, he was still in the cave he claimed, sitting cross-legged. _'Interesting…those were…dreams. Of what? Just…of so many pokemon. They each seemed to radiate power before me…some even more than others. And that one…the white one in the center. He…he was Arceus. I can tell. And the others…were they…the Legendaries? Just what was the meaning of that?'_

Deoxys stood up, recombining his tentacles into hands to help do so. He activated a special vision of his, thus seeing through the walls of the cave. He could see many pokemon around him, some roaming the dug-out halls, some sleeping, and others tending to their families. _'A family…just what is that like? Arceus has filled my mind with so much knowledge, yet…I don't understand. What are parents? What are children? Siblings? What is that like? There are so many pokemon that are alike…they eat…they mate…they live life. But me…I am on my own. Just what is this feeling? It hurts inside…and I don't know why. Why can it not end now? Why can't I be left to my own ideas? Must I be pained? Arceus…this is your fault. I have not figured out my purpose. Just what is it?'_

The alien pokemon's eyes began to glow, and he looked up. His arms split into four tentacles once again, each coming together at a point. Immediately, he shot a Hyper Beam through the ceiling, annihilating anything in the way. This left a hole going straight up and out the top of the giant rock that Deoxys and so many other pokemon called home. As soon as the attack ended, Deoxys flew up through the hole until he reached the top. He landed gracefully on his pointed feet and took in the landscape.

From what his eyes could tell, it was late at night. The air had a chill to it, something that Deoxys had taken notice of. It seemed that the longer it had been since his creation, the more he noticed and understood. _'And yet…there is so much I wish to understand. Arceus…my destiny. What is it? WHAT IS IT? ANSWER ME!'_

Deoxys doubled over in sudden pain, clutching his sides. _'What…'_ But before he could realize what he was doing, he reared back up until his heart faced the blackened sky. His heart began to shine brightly, launching a massive burst of energy from within. The energy spread across the sky, going up into the heavens as well as miles away in every direction, forming an aurora.

'_Pain…that's what I feel. I understand that much. Arceus…you are at fault for my pain. You have given me this…loneliness. AAAGGHHHH!'_ He screamed mentally, his body morphing into a spikier version of itself, his attack mode. Without delay, he began to launch Psycho Boost after Psycho Boost into the desert and beyond, laying waste to whatever was in their path.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"Arceus! Do you realize what you've done?!" Dialga demanded. The Legendaries were huddled around a massive pool that showed Deoxys' current actions on its surface. Arceus solemnly stared at the scene as it unfolded, ignoring the time deity's question.

"Arceus, normally I would not question your actions, but this has become dangerous," Palkia said. "I mean, I assisted you innumerable times before for all sorts of crazy missions, such as your recent request but…this has to be stopped sooner or later. Your 'pet project,' Deoxys, has become a threat to himself and everything around him. I would not be surprised if he didn't lay waste to the entire world, like a certain pokemon nearly did."

'Are you trying to imply something, Palkia?' Mewtwo mentally growled. 'I would wisely think of what you would like to say next; the wrong words may just cause you to become the first immortal pokemon to die.'

"**Enough," Arceus interrupted. Every legendary stopped talking at looked expectantly at the Alpha pokemon. "I know exactly what I am doing. Please, be patient. The damage he does will be over soon, I can guarantee it. I have even had Celebi check upon how everything shall end up."**

"And?" inquired Palkia.

"And, everything shall end a-okay," answered Celebi cheerfully. The forest spirit floated to the center of the group, hovering several feet above the water. "It may be a bit, but Deoxys shall correct himself, and become a very responsible pokemon. He shall become a valuable part of our group."

"That is, if time does not fluctuate," Dialga added. Celebi shot him a look of contempt. "The outcomes of the future are ever-changing variables. They are never definite until they happen."

"Unless they already happened." Said a livid Celebi.

"Even so, everything has the freedom of choice, does it not? Therefore, I do not trust that Deoxys shall end up the way you claim."

**"Dialga, have patience. Celebi knows what she is talking about. And I do not doubt you either. You do control time, so you would know all about it. But please, trust me on this. Give this time; it is imperative that this all falls through. Otherwise, so much will have been for nothing.**

**

* * *

**

**How was this? I personally liked writing this, although I'm a little iffy with writing the missions themselves. The next chapter should come out when I get the one after mostly written. You guys'll like the next one, the first OC team is introduced (sorry for the wait SakuraFurude).  
Speaking of OC teams, please do submit if you have one.  
**Team Name  
Members w/Gender, Names, Species  
Background/Experience  
Moves


	8. Lightwater

**Finally got around to updating. At least cross country is over, so now I can do more writing over the week rather than sit down and spit out ideas all at once. Thanks to all those who reviewed and submitted so far! This chapter will introduce the first of the submitted teams from SakuraFurude, Team Lightwater. Please enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 7: Lightwater

The rest of the night went by uneventfully. At least, what would be the norm for me was uneventful. I unsurprised to see that Team Hades was sneering as Phloe and I had walked into the mess hall that night. They got up immediately and left, with Styx pausing momentarily to let me know that he "was surprised that I was alive at all." Omen and Demi only snickered at the comment as they walked off.

We sat with Team Sting once again, not that it mattered. Pin congratulated us both on doing a job well done, but then Scorp went and bluntly pointed out that Phloe and I were covered in scratches and dried blood. Then again, it wasn't if we hadn't noticed already anyways. "You two should probably head down and get looked at by Madame Chansey in town," Pin suggested. "She'll fix you guys right up!"

The both of us agreed, and left into town after we finished. Pin had already given us directions as to where to go, but it wasn't as if it was really difficult to find it anyways. A large tent in the center of town with a red plus sign on it, obviously showing that it was the hospital.

"Oh my goodness!" Madame Chansey exclaimed upon seeing the two of us. I must admit, we weren't the most pleasant sight to see. Probably why everyone gave us weird looks on the way here. Either that or word spread that I was a human once. Great, even more possible issues.

She called in a Smoochum and Happiny, both presumably her assistants, to help clean us up. It seemed quite similar to the experience in the hospital in the forest, only this time there wasn't a life or death emergency. A few minutes passed, and we were okay to go. A few makeshift bandages were placed upon Phloe and I, as well as the sling being replaced on her arm. And that wasn't all. Madame Chansey had told us that within a week Phloe would be able to use her arm normally again, which my Treecko partner was absolutely elated to hear that.

Thanking the Chansey for her help, the two of us left and began to head back to the guild. However, as soon as we left the tent another team of two walked in, equally as bad a sight as we had been. I took note that it was a Piplup and a Pikachu, both of whom I had never seen before in my short time in the guild. However, something about the Piplup struck me as odd…I couldn't place it, but there was definitely something off…

"Tide? Hello, are we still alive in there?" Phloe asked. I shook my head, allowing myself to come back to reality. "Yeah…yeah, I think so…" I replied, my mind still off in the distance.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"TIME TO GET UP!" Loudred screamed. He slammed the door to our room shut and continued his route down the hall, repeating with every team in the guild. I woke up groggily once again, and thankfully didn't have to wake up Phloe this time. She was already getting up, so I rocked from side to side until I could flip onto my stomach. 'I should probably try to sleep on my stomach next time,' I thought.

"Good morning Tide," Phloe said as she began stretching, careful not to disturb her arm. I could see that she was still happy after learning that it'd be usable within a week. Now if Styx didn't go and crush it again, we'd be set. "Good morning to you too," I replied, smiling. "Glad I didn't have to wake you up today, I was afraid I'd be busted in the jaw again."

"Sorry about that," she giggled. "You know I didn't mean that. The question now is if I have to drag you out of here again because you're stubborn about the fact that everyone now knows that you are a pokemon?"

My grin washed away as soon as she mentioned that. "Thanks for reminding me," I said glumly. "Not exactly something I wish to be reminded of. Especially since the threat of death is constantly there with Styx around. How do I know that one night he won't come in and bite my neck off? Or some other pokemon here that hates me for my past?"

"You better be kidding me," she glowered. "You should not be worrying about anything that probably won't happen. Remember, the rest of the guild has your back. For once, maybe you should find something else to focus your mind upon."

As Phloe said this, my mind immediately flashed to last night, when we had been leaving the hospital tent. I had completely forgotten about the Piplup and Pikachu. And when I thought about it, I still couldn't figure out what it was about the Piplup that seemed odd. "Hey, you remember the two pokemon that came into the hospital after us last night?" I asked Phloe. She seemed taken aback at the randomness of the question, but went with it anyways. "Yeah, it was a Piplup and a Pikachu, right? What's so special about that?"

I put my hand to my forehead in thought. "I…I'm not really sure. There's just something odd about the Piplup. I can't place it, but something is weird about it."

"I didn't find anything wrong with them," she replied. "They seemed to be a normal exploration team to me. Nothing at all seemed off to me about the Piplup." She walked over and grabbed the treasure bag with her good arm and tossed it at me. "Maybe Pin or one of those guys can tell you more about them if you want. But let's go get some food first."

I let out an "oof" as the bag hit me in the stomach, but quickly picked it back up and ran out the door with Phloe. We seemed to be a little more on time this morning, as most of the other teams were just beginning to pool out from their rooms as well. One of those teams happened to be the Piplup and Pikachu. They were walking in front of us, and once again I had that strange feeling when I looked at the Piplup. There was just something off about it. I couldn't place it, but there was something about it that I couldn't place.

We got in to the mess hall, and they went to the far end of the middle table, while Phloe and I found Team Sting nearby and took seats by them. Unsurprisingly, they were already gorging themselves upon the assortment of berries that were around. We joined them, and were given only grunts as greetings from them. "Ungh…good morning you two," Pin said as he finished his current berry. "Ready for another day of exploration?"

"I suppose so," I answered, shrugging. I was about to eat a berry until I remembered my question for them. "Hey Pin," I said as I set the berry back down on the table. "Do you know anything about that team over there?" I pointed down to the two pokemon. Pin set his berry down as well and turned to the direction I pointed to. "The Piplup and Pikachu, I presume? Yeah I know them. They're Team Lightwater."

"Team Lightwater…"

"Yep. They're one of the more experienced teams here that actually managed to graduate, although they only recently came back to the guild."

Phloe, clearly interested, joined in the conversation at this point. "They did? Where did they go off to?" Pin shrugged. "No one really knows. Heh, really, not even the Guildmaster knows where they went off to. They just disappeared for a few months. They won't tell anyone where."

"Some people think they found a huge stash of treasure, and they keep it in their team's main base," added Scorp. "Although, I'm beginning to think that it's bogus. Haven't found any proof of it in there."

"You broke into their base and scrounged around for some treasure that only has a rumor to back it up? Why does that not surprise me?" Pin asked in as calm a voice he could muster, but he was clearly about to lose it. I wouldn't have been surprised if he tried to stab his Gligar partner with his drills. Scorp grinned in response. "Because you know me too well! Besides, if I did find that treasure, imagine how rich our team would be! We could buy as many TMs as we wanted!"

"Just promise me you'll never break into their base again. Or I'll gouge your eyes out. One drill per eye." Scorp grinned sheepishly, waving his hands defensively. "Hey man, you know me. Give me the word, and I stop. So now I stop. After about forty-three visits…" he mumbled the last part, but I could still hear it. I figured Pin did too, but he sure didn't act like he did. "Whatever. Back to the original discussion, I wanted to tell you two that they are an interesting team," he said. "The Pikachu is Pika, and the Piplup is Spade. On their last mission before they disappeared, Spade allegedly found some entrance to a hidden land far away from where any team has been before. Her partner Pika was originally against going, but something changed his mind and they set off. They came back maybe a week later with nothing, so most don't believe their story. All they would say was stuff about a 'Rainbow Stoneship' or something. Go figure."

"Is that all?" Phloe asked, and Pin nodded in reply. "Yeah, that's about it. They are a great team, and quite caring to the others here. Although, I do know something quite interesting..." Pin said, leaning in to whisper. "No one knows why, but Spade seemed to have originally come from nowhere. She won't say where she is from, but it's clear that she isn't telling us stuff. A lot of pokemon here think that she had been a trainer's pokemon once, and something bad happened. Of course, a lot of nastier rumors have spread as well, but no one really knows."

"Okay, thanks." I said, finally beginning to eat my berry at this point. I turned back to look at Team Lightwater. I saw the Piplup, Spade, happily eating next to her partner. "So she came from nowhere, huh?" I mumbled to myself. There was definitely more than anyone knew, but I couldn't tell what.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"Team Impact, there you are," Chatot greeted us as we walked up to the job board. "After the success of your mission yesterday, feel free to go ahead and choose any job of your liking for today. Tomorrow we may see if you're ready to move up a bit…" He said as he flew back to the lower level. Just as the two of us walked up to the board, Team Styx slid in front of us, pushing us back a bit.

"Oh, terribly sorry," Styx said with a mocking grin. "Didn't see you two there. Did either of you?" Omen and Demi just shook their heads, both with equally sadistic looks on their faces as their leader. "Anyways, I'm surprised. The fake and the cripple managed to survive their first mission. Impressive. Oh wait, never mind," he laughed. "Now if you'll excuse us, we're going to be taking a rescue mission to the Northern Desert. Quite dangerous, and if the rumors hold true, the mystery pokemon has been sighted near there. Definitely too rough for the likes of you. And that's our job, keeping the people like you two below, while we stay above and well respected. I doubt you'll have as good of luck today as you did yesterday." He finished, walking off and up the ladder. Omen followed silently, and Demi right behind him, chuckling to herself.

As much as I didn't want Styx's words to get to me, they did. Not only was he insulting me, but he also was insulting Phloe. And for no reason! I was about to go after them but Phloe held me back with her good arm. "Don't, it's not even worth it," she cautioned. "Let's just grab a job and get it done. I'm sure we'll do fine."

We then turned our attention to the job board, and its multiple listings of missions from so many pokemon all over the land. "Let's do this one." Phloe pointed to a small piece of scrap paper that had a request scrawled across it. She grabbed it off and held it down for both of us to read. 'Help me! I'm stuck here in the Drenched Bluff! I was traveling through on my way home and got lost! Please hurry! ~Signed, Makuhita'

"Sounds good enough to me," I said while nodding. Phloe took the paper and stowed it away into the treasure bag. "Okay then. Should we go ahead and get going? We don't really know how long this might take…"

"Why not? This could be quick and we could get back sooner than expected." She nodded in agreement to what I said, and we set off and out to the Drenched Bluff.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"We're here," Phloe announced upon our arrival to a mossy opening to a cave. Obviously, this was Drenched Bluff. "Let's get moving, we have no idea what floor our client is on, nor do we know if this will be a one-day trip. Better to cover as much ground as possible."

Walking inside, I realized that the place didn't seem much different than Beach Cave from yesterday. From where we stood currently, it seemed about the same, just a dull cave with plenty of pools of water all over the place. Unfortunately, it didn't look to start off easier for us. Several Lileep and Anorith were currently crawling about the room we were in. "Oh crud, this won't be easy to get through," I whined. This happened to grab the unwanted attention of two passing Anorith, both of which began to hiss and crawl towards us. "Even better," I added.

We managed to take them both out fairly easily, though. Phloe used a Pound attack on one while I took on the other with a Tackle. They both still stood, but thankfully didn't attack. Instead, they tried to defend themselves with Harden, not like it would help them much. Phloe and I just did the same thing again, this time knocking both shrimp pokemon out. "Let's go." Phloe ordered, running to a corridor in the cave to escape the other rogue pokemon. I ran as quickly as I could to catch up.

The next room was thankfully empty, spare for a random apple lying on the floor. "Better to not let it go to waste," was Phloe's excuse to pick it up and put it into the bag. I was never going to touch that apple, unless I knew it was clean. Then again, thinking about everything since I'd been a pokemon, I didn't think much had been very sanitary anyways. Oh well. We went straight ahead to another room that we found, and were relieved to find the stairs to the next floor.

Going on, I was once more pleased to see that no pokemon were there to greet us as we came from the stairway. Phloe led me to the next hall that we found, but we were stopped by a Lileep that was in the way. I went ahead and got up to the strange fossil, using a Tackle attack against it. It responded with an Astonish, catching me off guard and throwing me back behind Phloe. She moved on and used Absorb on it, taking out the sea lily. Embarrassingly enough, I couldn't manage to get back up on my feet. Not surprising though, since I was both on my back and with the somewhat heavy treasure back on the back of my shell. Definitely not an easy task to get back up. Phloe giggled at my misfortune, causing me to glare in return. I do not take being laughed at well.

"Sorry Tide, I can't help it. You...look…ridiculous!" she laughed as I continued to struggle in my vain attempts at righting myself. I must have looked like a fool, trying to rock back and forth while flailing about like a madman. After she pulled herself together, Phloe actually got to helping me back up and we were once again on our way, but I still had to put up with some intermittent giggles from the Treecko.

"Please drop it."

"…Why? Can't I laugh for once?"

"No. Actually yes," I said after a moment. "You can laugh. Just not at my expense."

"Come on. You know that I couldn't help it."

"Yes you could."

"No, I couldn't. The way you looked…it was just…too much!" And she burst out laughing again at the memory. I groaned in annoyance at my partner, trying to forget about the whole incident. The corridor we were in soon ended, opening into a small cave area. A Shellos was all there was to greet us, but Phloe decided to make short work of it with an Absorb. Afterwards, she began to laugh again at what had happened to me.

"It wasn't that funny!"

"I can't help it!"

"Yes you can!" I yelled back. I pulled the apple out from earlier, and threw it at the Treecko. Being the poor shot I was, it missed, instead going clear across the small cave and to the entrance into the next rocky hallway. I was going over to pick it back up when a small black hand appeared from the darkness and snatched the apple away. A voice clearly exclaimed "Mine!" as it did so. I turned back to Phloe completely confused, but the look on her face told me that she was thinking the same thing. What on earth had just happened? She came up behind me and we went on down the hall, following what sounded to be light footsteps only a short ways ahead of us.

When we got into the next open cave, we didn't immediately see anything out of the ordinary. It was mostly empty, devoid of any pokemon from what we could see. That is, until we heard a munching noise to the left of us. Sure enough, there was a short, fat pokemon with its back turned towards us. "This can't be our client, can it?" I asked, taken aback by the hunched over pokemon. Phloe sighed as if she couldn't believe it either. "Yes, that's definitely Makuhita. Hey! We're here to rescue you!" she yelled. Her voiced echoed throughout the cave, making me wonder why a bunch of rogue pokemon didn't just come swarming in right then. Makuhita heard her and turned around with his eyes squinted at us. "Heh? You guys came to save me?" he asked with a few bits of apple spraying from his mouth. Definitely not the cleanest pokemon around from what I could guess.

"Yes," I said. The both of us began to walk over the little fighting pokemon, who had now turned all the way around and was beginning to finish the apple. "We got your little message for rescue and came right away this morning."

"This morning? It's felt like I've been here for several days! I'm starved and I…by the way, you wouldn't happen to have anything else to eat, would you?"

"Er…no, we don't."

"Oh," he said, clearly crestfallen. "Well that's okay. I can just get something when I get home."

"That's good…" I sighed, pressing the guild badge and transporting the three of us back to Treasure Town.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

"Ah, thanks so much you two! I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come any sooner!" Makuhita was absolutely overjoyed that Phloe and I had rescued him. Truthfully, I didn't think he was in much danger to begin with, but whatever. "Please accept this reward! It's definitely worth it for my rescue!" he said, hefting a little bag of money from nowhere and handing it to the two of us. "Thanks again!" he shouted before speeding up the ladder and back to his home. I would bet anything he was going to eat whatever food he had left, if any. Which made me feel more than a little guilty.

The Guild had money to afford enough food and stuff, but a lot of pokemon in town didn't. I couldn't help but begin to wonder when the shortages would end. "It looks like our second mission went well," Phloe cheered. I nodded, but was distracted by the amount of money we earned again. It was unreal. Now if only we could just go before…

"Team Impact, you're back!"

I winced. Chatot was the last pokemon I wanted to see right then. "So I see your second mission went well! Excellent! Now if you please…" He swiped the bag from the both of us, taking the money and giving us only a minimal amount in return. "Thank you, I believe I shall see you both again at dinner." And then he proceeded to fly off with the bag once again, leaving us depressed once again.

"I'm never going to get excited about a lot of money again." I moped. Phloe laughed a little at my whining and shoved me slightly with her good arm. "Come on, it's just money. We'll earn more as time goes on. Besides, with what we have right now we could probably go into town and stock up on some items. I heard about a little shop that sells just about everything here in Treasure Town. It's supposed to be owned by two Kecleon brothers. Want to check it out right now?"

"Eh…not really. I'll go around town, but I don't think I'll go there right now. You can go on ahead if you want."

Phloe looked at me as if to tell me I was going to be missing out. "Suit yourself. I'll meet you back here in time for the dinner bell, I presume?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll see you then." I waved her off, and she hopped out the entrance of the guild. I didn't really know what I was going to do in town, but I think much about it before I began to walk up the ladder. Exiting from the tent, three teams walked by to go in. One of them I noticed to be Lightwater, with Pika and Spade walking by with hardened looks upon their faces. I could only guess that they were returning from a mission of their own.

I would have not paid any more mind to them unless I hadn't seen Spade slightly stare at me as they walked past, as if the Piplup was looking for something different about me. I guess some pokemon still thought of me as a freak since I was a former human. Sighing at the remembrance of the fact, I set off into town to try to take my mind off of everything and see if there was anything worth my time. Being the afternoon, the town was not too busy, but it wasn't quite empty either. "I suppose that's fine," I mumbled, and began to look around. I had never really paid too much mind the few times I had been through before, but now that I looked I realized how big the town really was. Shops were dotting the length of the main road, and it looked as if several more branching roads were interspersed around the place with more shops and even some homes.

In my time out there, I hadn't really found much exciting to do until one structure caught my eye. Perhaps it was because it wasn't a tent shop like everything else. Or that it had a huge sign with a Marowak skull on the front of it and massive bones covering the roof sides. Definitely not something that seemed very welcoming, but I went on ahead to check it out.

"Uh…hello?" I called out as I peeked my head along the side of the entrance to the place. Light only went so far inside, with the rest of the inside lit up by lanterns and torches, further adding to the fright and intimidation factor. "Huh, oh hello!" a Marowak replied to me, waving his bone. I decided to not hold out any longer and decided to walk on in. "So, are you here to train?" he asked me. "Er, what? Train?" He nodded.

"Yes, that's exactly what my little place is for. This is the one and only Marowak Dojo, owned and operated by myself. I open the Dojo for extensive training opportunities for all exploration teams that wish to stop by. Not only that, but I offer a training under each type to improve upon strengths and weaknesses. It is also a great way for teams to work on possible strategies to make exploring much easier."

"Cool," I said as I let my eyes wander around. The entry area was dirty but quite lit up, with a dark entry to what I assumed to be the training halls. Marowak stared at me expectantly waiting for me to say something else. "Well? Would you like to train?"

"While it's a great idea…"

"Hmm?" he seemed like he was expecting me to insult him or something.

"…I really was just stopping by for the moment. Your place has a more eye-catching exterior than most other places here in town. But I promise I will come back, just when I have my partner with me. She's wandering around town at the moment; I decided to go off on my own. We are a new team by the way, Team Impact. Name's Tide." I said, extending a hand.

"Well then, pleased to meet you Tide," Marowak smiled. All evidence of any suspicions disappeared as he shook my hand. "I will wait for your team to come by. I definitely would suggest so, especially since my training programs can easily help out new teams to get set for intense missions. Until then, goodbye!" He waved his bone again and I began to walk out.

"Thanks Marowak. We'll probably be by in a few days if we have the chance!" I yelled, waving back.

Walking back out, I noticed the sun had dropped just a little bit more. I guessed I had spent a good amount of time talking to Marowak back there. I decided to go ahead and make my way back to the guild. Dinner probably wouldn't be much longer, and if Phloe wasn't back already, I would probably meet up with her sooner or later. The roads of town were a bit less populated with other pokemon, although some teams were still walking around and chatting or shopping. I was just about to the outskirts of town when something caught my eye. Turning my head slightly, I saw Spade sneakily making her way behind some of the shop tents. "What is she doing?" I asked myself, deciding against better judgment and followed after her.

Spade was walking through the back parts of town obviously up to something she shouldn't be. She turned off toward the forest, to where, I could only guess. I scuttled after, trying to remain stealthy, but with my turtle body that wasn't working all that well. "Stinking stubby legs. Why couldn't I have been something else? Out of everything to be wrong as a pokemon, I had to have stubby legs." I looked around the surrounding forest to try to find the Piplup, but unfortunately saw that I lost track of her. "Great. Just great," I moaned. "And now let's see if I can actually make it back to the guild…" I mumbled as I turned around and began to try and retrace my steps.

Turns out, the forest looks the same no matter where you go. I knew that I didn't go that far into the forest, but not being a natural pokemon brought some problems, namely having major directional issues. "Why me? Why is it that I have to have this problem? Gah, where is Treasure Town? I'm starving!" I whined, even though I knew that it wasn't going to do anything. I stopped for a moment to try to think clearly and figure out how to get back quick enough. I was about to go off to what I assumed to be south when I saw a blur of blue to my left. Sure enough, it was Spade again, this time heading back to Treasure Town. "H-hey, w-w-wait up, Spade!" I cried, running in her direction.

She had stopped shortly ahead and was looking back, clearly surprised to see me running up. "Who are you and how do you know my name?" she asked coldly. I stopped, only slightly afraid. "Er…my name is Tide. I'm new to Wigglytuff's Guild, and I kind of got lost around here. And I know your name because Team Sting was helping me and my partner out so that we know who a lot of the more prominent teams are. Is that all you wanted to know?"

She continued to stare at me somewhat unconvinced until a flicker of recognition played in her eyes. "Ah," she said with realization. "You're the human. That's right."

"Well, uh…yeah, I'm the 'former' human," I explained. "Oh yes, just laugh and point at the weirdo, go ahead."

She smirked, and turned around waving a fin. "Follow me, I know where the guild is." She said. I thanked her profusely and followed closely behind until I could see town clearly forming up ahead. "So why were you out there in the first place?" she asked.

"I was…looking around the area. For…berry trees." I lied. Spade nodded, but I couldn't tell if she bought what I said or not. "Right. Of course." She said. She stopped once we were right on the outskirts of town. "I suppose I will see you around then," she said finally. "Actually, I believe I will see you very soon. We need to talk about something. Something important."

"O-okay," I stuttered as she walked off. "I'll just...see you around." Shrugging, I ran on back to the guild hoping that I hadn't missed dinner. Luckily it seemed I was right about on time as many other pokemon were making their way back to the guild at the moment, and Phloe was among them.

"There you are!" she exclaimed, obviously relieved that I was there. "I hadn't seen you at all in town. What where you doing?"

"A lot of things. Although I did find something interesting that I think we should check out at some point. It's called Marowak Dojo…"

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The soft desert sand shifted as the large black dog pokemon walked along it. His two partners were on either side of him, both silently trudging along to find their missing client in the endless desert. The heat was dying as the daylight began to extinguish, but this did not bother any of them at all. The leader, being a fire type, could handle heat and generate it. The other was a ghost, so nothing mattered to him. The other was part ice, thus she could handle cold or cool herself if she needed to. Each of them was perfectly suited to the mission in the desert. Each was confident they would succeed. The only flaw was that there was a horrid entrenching fear slowly gripping each of their hearts.

"Styx, you know we could just grab the guy and get out of here, right?" asked the Weavile, Demi. Her leader nodded solemnly. "Yes," said Styx. "We could just grab him and go. In fact, we should just grab him and go. But the mystery pokemon…I can feel it. Its energy is unlike anything I've ever felt, we must find it!"

"We can all feel it. But who knows where it is hiding? We could look until we die, and still never find it." Countered Demi.

"But we have to try! We have to at least have the proof, right Omen?"

The Dusclops remained silent, his hands behind his back as he walked behind the both of them. Styx looked back to him for an answer, and the ghost narrowed his eye before coming to a sudden halt. "There." He pointed off in a two o'clock direction from where they were at the moment. Demi and Styx squinted in the quickly darkening landscape to see what their friend could see.

"What is that? A mountain?" asked Demi. Omen remained silent.

"Well? What about it?" barked Styx. "Don't be wasting our time now, Omen!"

The Dusclops closed his eye for a moment, but shot it open in an instant. "We must move. Quickly. This way, it is safer, and our client is over here. I can detect him." He began to walk faster than usual, almost at a jog.

"Omen, wait up!" Demi shouted, running after her partner. Styx frowned in the direction of the mountain, but ran to catch up with the both of them. Not even thirty seconds later, a Hyper Beam blasted where each of them had been standing moments before.

"What was that?" yelled Styx. "What on earth was that?"

None of them stopped, but instead quickened their pace. "It was our little mystery pokemon," wheezed Omen. "As it turns out, he's not as benevolent as was hoped.

"A little more on the malevolent side, don't you think?" Styx asked. Omen nodded grimly. "Yes, and I fear that wasn't the last time he'll blast us. Now we must hurry, and hope he does not openly come after us. Our client is three miles ahead. He has fallen asleep in the desert sands, but he is well alive right now. The only hope is that we can get him and get out before anyone is hurt…or worse.

* * *

**I hope I did Spade and Pika justice in their introduction. They'll become more prominent and regular as time goes on, I just needed to work them in. And thanks for the suggestion on the mystery dungeons SakuraFurude (I'll institute it in the next chapter, as well as the team submitted by i'm none.  
One last thing: I'm accepting one final OC team for now. That doesn't rule them out in the future, but I'll only accept one more for now. Of course, the form is as follows:  
**Team Name  
Members w/Gender, Names, Species  
Background/Experience  
Moves  
**Thanks again everyone!**


	9. Wanted

**Took me long enough to write this chapter. School distracts me so much, I hardly have any time to think on these stories to progress them. Oh well, please do enjoy this chapter. And thanks to everyone who has reviewed and sent OCs in. You may be few, but I'm glad you guys enjoy this!**

* * *

Chapter 8: Wanted

"WAKE UP! I said WAKE UP! We have an IMPORTANT guild meeting in TEN MINUTES!" screamed the unwelcome voice of Loudred from the doorway of our room. "That means YOU TWO!"

Phloe and I groaned in annoyance at the volume of Loudred's calls. I crawled out of my shell and onto my feet, this time actually sleeping on my stomach this time. And might I say, it was a lot easier to do it that way. Phloe got up as well, being sure not to disturb her arm. It was only days away from being out of the sling and she obviously was doing everything she could to make sure that nothing would cause any problems for her.

"Whatever Loudred woke us up for, it better be important," grumbled Phloe. "This is earlier than what our usual wake up time is."

"Well it has to be important; otherwise they wouldn't have woken us in the first place." I replied, picking up the Treasure Bag just in case.

"You never know though, they could be trying to trick us or something," she warned. "We are the newbie team after all."

Her words made me think of countless possibilities, including opportunities for the guild to further exploit the fact that I was a former human. Pushing those thoughts into the back of my head, I began to walk out the door. "It's probably important. Let's just…let's just go and see."

* * *

"…Perhaps the most frightening moment of my life," Styx proclaimed to the entire guild. He and his team were standing in front of everyone where meetings were usually held in the guild, along with a Croagunk standing silently alongside them. "We were lucky to escape the desert with our lives. There is no doubt; the mystery pokemon is a threat to everyone. And we have reason to suspect that it won't stay where it is for long."

"I could detect it…see enough of it with my abilities, and could see its intentions. It was obviously lost, and from the looks of things, would begin to find its way elsewhere before long," rasped Omen. "If I am correct, and it is actually lost in every meaning of the word, I fear that it may soon begin to travel to Treasure Town. What it may do once it arrives…I cannot be sure. But I fear the worst."

"Especially since that creep shot Hyper Beams at us like it there was no tomorrow!" added Demi. Everyone in the guild was clearly shocked at all of these revelations, myself and Phloe included. Wigglytuff and Chatot stepped up to speak after them. "Friends, this means a great danger has set itself upon us! We must do everything to keep Treasure Town, and the rest of our world, safe from this bad pokemon!"

"Guildmaster is right," Chatot said. "We must do everything in our power to keep things safe, and to always keep eyes and ears open for anything about this pokemon. And to help us further, a witness, and the pokemon rescued by Team Styx, has provided us with a witness sketch of the pokemon. If you please, Slip?"

The Croagunk stepped forward, taking a rolled up piece of paper out that he had behind him. Unrolling it, he showed the sketch he had created. Immediately there was a murmur amongst the crowd. Some were disturbed by what they saw, others were intrigued. Upon the picture was a colored sketch of the head of a strangely alien pokemon. Its head was orange, with an oval of blue in the center of its face. The head itself was oval shaped, with two square-like protrusions on either side. Perhaps most disturbing of all were the eyes, just two stoic, unblinking eyes that stared at you and seemed to pierce your soul, even though it was a drawing.

"I bore witness to this being while on a trek through the desert. I came within close proximity of a large rock structure in the desert, and it flew from the top and proceeded to blast me with all sorts of attacks. Never in my life was I so afraid…"

"Kind weird looking, don't you agree?" someone asked me from behind. Jumping in surprise, I turned around to see Spade standing there with her partner, Pika. "Whoa, caught me by surprise there," I said, trying to catch my breath. Both of them laughed. "So this is the crazy guy who says he was a human," laughed Pika. Spade nodded. "Indeed, here he is."

"So, did you just bonk your head a little too hard or something?" asked Pika. "Because, I know for a fact you were never a human."

"So you would argue that a bonk on the head gave me memories of my sixteen years of life? Sure, I'd buy that story any day."

"Well, it's a lot more believable…"

"Not to me. And not to Phloe. Right Phloe?" The Treecko turned around, just now noticing our company. "Yeah, definitely! It would explain why I've never seen him before, and how he just appeared from nowhere."

"Yeah! Yeah, from…nowhere." I said to Pika and Spade, looking to Spade as a flicker of something played in her eyes.

"W-we best be going now," Spade suddenly said. Pika stopped laughing for once and turned to his partner. "Why? We don't really have anything to do at the moment, and really, I want to go talk to this Slip guy. I definitely want to know more about this."

Spade nodded hurriedly. "That's fine. You can go on ahead, I suppose I'll see you later," she said as Pika took off into the crowd whooping. The Piplup turned to me and Phloe once again. "Hey Phloe…that is your name right? Anyways, can I borrow Tide for a moment? I wish to talk to him about something…important."

Phloe and I looked at each other and she just shrugged. "I guess I don't care. Is it something I could help with?"

"Er-no. Sorry, but this is a rather important matter that I need to talk to Tide about. It won't be longer than a few minutes."

"Well…I guess that's okay. Our team isn't needed at the moment, and I do want to hear more about this…"

"So do I!" I added quickly. I was not getting good feelings about what Spade wanted. Sticking around with Phloe seemed like a much more logical and safe choice for me.

"Too bad. This is extremely important that I tell you!" Spade said finally, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me out of the crowd and down a hallway. She looked around to make sure no one was nearby or could hear us before looking to me again.

"Listen. This is the best opportunity I have to talk to you about this for now. It's something that I believe you will find interesting." She said.

"Uh-huh. And what would that be?" I asked skeptically. She took in a deep breath before looking around one more time. "You're not exactly alone or unique."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean…you're not the only human-turned-pokemon here. There is one other that I know of."

Not at all catching who she may be talking about, I continued to pry as my interest grew. "Who? Tell me who else there is!"

"Me."

A long silence held out after she said that. My brain took a few seconds to register this, before I immediately began to shout out at the top of my lungs. "WHAT?"

She winced and put a flipper to my mouth. "Quiet! You want the whole guild to find out about this? Absolutely no one knows. No one."

"Not even Pika?"

"Especially not him. You know why? I was afraid of a negative reaction, just like you probably did. I actually thought I would be killed."

"Heh, welcome to my world with Styx and the rest of Team Hades. They're out for my blood, I'm telling you!"

"Well, you got off on a bad foot. At least your partner accepts you. And as it seems, most other pokemon do as well. They see you're no different from them, so they can accept you more easily."

"Then why don't you come out with it?"

"A fear, I suppose. I still think that even then, I'll still be attacked or shunned for my past. Unfortunately, I don't remember much at all. In fact, I just remember waking up here and remembering being a human. There was nothing otherwise."

"So then if you just came, why did mine happen so crazily?"

"How so?"

"Well, the meteor shower for one. Then comes the fact that a giant pink dragon slashes at me and sends me here."

"…Strange."

"What, my crazy entrance? Yeah, that's exactly what I thought."

"No, not that. Something else. You say that you arrived with the meteor shower, correct?"

"Well yeah, but I don't see what that has to do with anyth-"

"If you remember, the mystery pokemon first appeared after the meteor storm. I believe there to be more than a coincidence there."

"What, you think me and the psycho have a bunch in common because of the mere happening that we both came around the same time?"

"You can never be sure," Phloe said. She turned to look down the hall as the voices of everyone began to become clear as they dispersed from the meeting. "But enough is enough for now. We may have to talk again in the future. I don't know, but I need to do some thinking about this. In the meantime, I wouldn't suggest becoming involved in this whole thing. If what they say is correct, then this pokemon is far more powerful than what anyone has ever dealt with."

Ending with that, Spade looked down the hall once last time before going off to find her partner. I let what she said sink in even more before I even thought about moving. Spade was a human before as well. She had no memories at all or any explanation, just like me. 'If there are two of us, then perhaps more exist…'

"Tide? What are you doing down here?" Phloe asked me. I snapped my head to the left to see her standing a few feet away. It seemed that everyone was going to go ahead and start the day a little earlier than usual from what I could see behind her. "The meeting is over. Styx and the others finished, and…things don't seem too well for you."

"…Why?" I asked, a bad feeling creeping into my heart.

"He's suggested that you may have something to do with the mystery pokemon. He brought up that you came after the meteor storm, and from the reports, so did it. Therefore, he said that you may be controlling it or something."

"What?" I gaped at her. Then I remembered that Spade had brought up a similar idea, but with less blame on me. "You have to be kidding. No one bought it, did they?"

"Fortunately, I don't think many did. He seemed to only suggest it in the slightest way, so we can hope that no one got it. But let's just forget it for now. I say we go get breakfast, no doubt Chimecho has it ready."

* * *

"Traitor!" Scorp shouted at me as soon as we sat down. Pin and Puffer sighed and both slapped the Gligar with a drill and tail. Scorp rubbed the side of his face in pain. "Sorry. But he could have something to do with-"

"No he doesn't!" Pin yelled back, once again slapping his teammate. The Beedrill looked at me. "Tide, I hope you can forgive this nincompoop for his unjustified calls. He doesn't really mean it, but due to his tiny brain, he proves to be easily influenced," He sighed and looked over to where Team Hades was seated. There were a few teams surrounding them and asking a never-ending stream of questions. From what I could see, Styx looked quite happy with his sudden publicity.

"I do hope that no one falsely blames you Tide," continued Pin. "I know that you have nothing to do with this. Puffer agrees as well, right Puffer?"

"Indeed I do." The Qwilfish said. I nodded and ate a few berries during the silence that followed. "Well, thanks guys. Your support really helps me, I hope you know that." I said.

"We do. We can understand what you probably deal with Tide. While obviously, not nearly to an extent as you, we can sympathize."

I thanked them again and stood up with Phloe, and we both walked off upstairs. "I wonder what missions we'll have to do today?" Phloe asked me. "Didn't Chatot tell us we'd have something different? I wonder what he meant by that?"

"Team Impact! Over here!" squawked said bird as we reached the top of the ladder. We looked to the usual job board where we thought he would be, but this time he wasn't. "Wrong side! Over here you two!" He said. We turned to our left to see him fluttering above another board with another team standing by.

"The Guildmaster and I have agreed that your team is ready for a new type of mission. Thus, you will pick one from here. However, as we noticed already, today's missions from this board are a bit high for you both to go at it alone. Therefore, we have had Team Fulmine join you, as they are the highest ranked rookie team here. You both will agree upon a mission from this board, and together will get it done."

I looked over to the other team, which was made up of an Elekid and a Shinx. "So what kind of missions are here that are so different from the other board?" I asked Chatot. The bird smiled. "These are specific in that they require teams to bring outlaws to justice for some reason or another. When you complete the mission and take out the villain, Officer Magnezone and his subordinates will take them into custody. It's as simple as that. Good luck!" He said as he flew off once again, leaving Phloe and I alone with Team Fulmine.

"Er…hello. I suppose introductions are in order. My name's Tide."

"And I'm Phloe." Said my partner. The Elekid and Shinx looked at each other and shrugged. "I'm Nero," said the Shinx. I noticed that he spoke rather softly, like he wasn't one to really talk much. "And this is Raiga," he said, bobbing his head to his partner. The Elekid grinned happily at the acknowledgement. "We've only been here for…what? Is it three weeks now?" Nero asked his partner.

"Something like that," answered Raiga. "Who really knows, time has flown by so much. I'm telling you guys, being in the guild is great. Even for former humans!"

I winced at that last statement. Phloe and Nero took notice, but both tried to ignore it. "Anyways, we've already got a mission," said Nero. "C-ranked, easy enough. Especially for all four of us. It shouldn't take long."

"Well, what does it say?" Phloe asked, slightly adjusting her sling as she spoke.

"Let me read it!" Raiga said as he snatched the small paper slip from his partner. "Ahem, it says, 'Help me get my TM back! The Hit 'Em Bros. snuck up on me in Mt. Bristle and took it away! Please, I need it back to give to my brother! Signed, Chi the Psyduck.' Sounds like it should be promising! Let's go!" The Elekid said before taking off up the ladder. Nero shook his head. "My partner…he's always ready for the next mission. I don't know how he does it…"

"I suppose this doesn't sound too bad," Phloe said to me. "A little action to turn away the monotony of the past few missions. That should be fine, don't you agree Tide?"

"Why not? Although it seems we don't really have much of a choice in the matter, do we?

* * *

The four of us arrived shortly in the crag base of Mt. Bristle. The weather here had taken to overcast, not that it would matter if we were going to be inside the mountain the entire time. Strangely enough, it was lit up inside.

'Probably another weird thing to these Mystery Dungeons." I thought to myself. Raiga had charged in before any of us realized what had happened, leaving his partner Nero sighing in defeat. "He can never be controlled…"

"Well, it's probably best that we go on ahead and catch up with him," Phloe suggested. "If we don't, who knows what kind of trouble he may get into?"

"Not as bad as before." Nero simply said. I looked to Phloe for any possible explanation, but she was just as lost as I was.

**BF 1**

Inside, we found Raiga standing only a short ways from the cave entrance, buzzing with excitement. "Alright guys, mission time! We got to go find those fools and beat them down for stealing that TM! Let's go!"

"Hold fast, Raiga," said Nero. "Teamwork. Keep things step by step. That is key."

The Elekid calmed just a bit after this, although he looked a bit disappointed. "Okay Nero," he said unenthusiastically. "I'll do it. But I'm not gonna be happy!"

"Just focus," Nero said. "That is all." He then turned to Phloe and I with a serious look plastered on his face. "My partner needs to learn control. But he'll be helpful, just watch. For now, we should get moving."

"You're right; we don't know where these 'Hit 'Em Bros.' are in this place. It could take days." Phloe said the last sentence with an out of mind kind of speaking.

"Hey guys, I know we like talking, I mean I love talking, but we have problems here!" shouted Raiga. He ran from the path of one cavern back to us with three Geodudes on his tail. Well, figuratively, that is.

"I didn't do anything this time Nero! Don't chastise me for this!"

"I wasn't." Nero said as he readied a Tackle attack at the oncoming Geodudes. He lunged forward, catching the leader in the forehead and toppling it backwards. Raiga turned around with a swing as he brought a Low Kick onto another. Before I knew what had happened, all three were knocked out, with Phloe taking out the last with an Absorb.

"Thanks guys! Don't I feel useful?" I said.

"You're welcome!" Raiga replied to me. I wasn't sure if he got the sarcasm in what I said or not. I shook my head but just ignored the Elekid's density.

"Forget it Tide," Phloe whispered to me. "We're working together with them, so don't go and anger them." Then, loud enough for Team Fulmine to hear, she said, "Let's get moving. We've probably wasted enough time, and we need to try to avoid fights for when we encounter the Hit 'Em Bros. I don't think that any of us want to go against them…whoever they are...and be on the brink of death."

"Agreed," said Nero. "Let's move then."

We went down the corridor which Raiga had gone down before, and were each delighted to see the stairway on the other side of the cave we entered. Going by what we had said before, we wasted no time in running down them.

**BF 2**

The next floor was generally the same as the last. Drab, dull, and…mountainy. We were greeted by an irate Starly that went after Raiga for no apparent reason. "Ah! Get away from me bird!" he yelled as he ran around in circles, the Starly keeping up behind him. Nero watched for no more than a few seconds before he charged the Starly with a Spark, knocking it out.

"Get a hold of yourself, Raiga," he growled. "It was a Starly. Nothing more."

Raiga stopped screaming and began to gasp for breath, nodding to his partner. "Sorry Nero. You know how I get around the flying type."

"Yes."

"So I'm forgiven?"

"No."

"Aw come on Nero!" whined Raiga. "I'll be good for the rest of the mission if you forgive me! Just please forgive me!"

At this point I was sick of hearing them and began to butt in. "Uh, sorry to interrupt, but could we-"

"Fine." Nero said to Raiga. The Elekid grinned and pumped his arms in happiness.

"…Well, as I was saying, can we please get moving again?" I asked. "If we keep this up, we won't find those thieves until next year, if they're even still here. Which I'd doubt after that long."

The combined group of the four of us began to walk on through the only hallway accessible from the cave we came in at. The next room had a sleeping Machop on the other side with two large boulders lying on either side of him. And when I say large, I mean massive! I would have guessed they weighed almost a ton each. "Not even as a human could I lift that…" I commented as I looked down at my stubby four-fingered arms.

"You humans are weak, aren't you?" Raiga proceeded to ask me.

"Well, kind of. Compared to something like that Machop, then yes. But some of us can get strong."

"But you guys don't have attacks. What's up with that?"

"How am I to know? I don't know why humans are the only creatures here that can't attack. It's as big a mystery to me as it is to anyone else.'

"Maybe humans got the short end of the stick in Arceus' eyes." Raiga suggested.

"Arceus? Who's that?" I asked.

"Arceus is the greatest, most-"

"Eh! Not…now." Nero spoke up, cutting off Raiga mid-sentence. "Focus. Discussion can wait."

We searched through a few more caves and hallways, but ended up with nothing on the thieves. We did manage to find the next stairway though, so we headed down the moment we saw it.

**BF 3**

The next floor seemed as lackluster as the last two, until the Badges began to ring in alarm. A tiny electronic voice began to squeal, "ALERT! ALERT! WANTED POKEMON IN RANGE!"

"Looks like we've reached our floor," Phloe said. "Now just where are the Beat 'Em Bros.? They could be anywhere."

"We best start looking then, shouldn't we?" I asked her.

The room we started out in branched in four separate directions, leaving us with four possible paths for us to search through. Raiga went ahead and scouted them for us, informing us that the one behind us was a dead-end. The others, however, could lead anywhere."

Phloe was the first to give her opinion on where to go. "I say to our left."

"Left has never been a good direction," I said, throwing my own two-cents in. "Let's go right. What do you say Nero?"

"You don't know anything," Nero bluntly told me. "Left it is."

* * *

Going left was definitely a better choice. Now, I wasn't ready to admit it at first, but once you find a room with a huge stash of food and two TMs, being on the losing side of the vote didn't seem so bad anymore.

"Hey wait a second," Phloe said just before Raiga and I began to stuff ourselves on the numerous berries, gummies, and apples piled in the cave room. My Treecko partner picked up one of the TMs off of the ground and brought it to Nero. "I think that one of these may be our clients," she said, dropping the TM in front of the Shinx and pulling the note out from the job board with her good hand. "Could you check to be sure?" she asked him. Nero leaned his head to the note Phloe held and sniffed it, taking in the scent.

"Got the scent," he said. "Now to check…" He bent downwards to sniff the TM in front of him. After a few seconds, he shook his head. "No. Not it." He walked across the room to the other one and took a long whiff of it as well. His eyes opened slowly as a grin spread to his face. "Yes. This-GYAH!"

Nero's small body was thrown into a wall as a speedy brown form dropped from the ceiling with a kick to the side of his head. The figure was soon joined by two others that dropped down right next to it. On its left was a pokemon in, strangely enough, a purple cheerleader outfit, but it was hunched over with two boxing glove fists poised to attack. On the right was an equally bizarre sight of a pokemon with a large head that came to a point, only that it was standing on its head perfectly motionless.

"We-" began to middle brown one.

"-Are-" said the cheerleader.

"-The-" said the top-head.

"Hit 'Em Bros.!" cried all three in unison, each pulling out a dramatic pose. Nero was beginning to stand up at this point, albeit shakily. Blood was dribbling down the side of his head. "What's going on?" he asked the closest person to him, who happened to be Raiga.

"Trouble dropped in. Literally."

"I can see that." Nero said between gritted teeth. The blow he took obviously hurt him more than it had looked.

"Just what do the four of you think you are doing in our secret hideout?" The middle one asked Nero.

While they talked, I scooted over to talk to Phloe. "Just who are these jokers?" I whispered as low as I could to her. She shrugged, not knowing much more than I did. "Apparently, these are our thieves. Hitmonlee in the middle, Hitmonchan on the left, and Hitmontop on the right. If we end up fighting these guys, it won't end well."

"-Our client's TM was stolen. That TM." Nero pointed in to the TM lying at the feet of Hitmonchan. Said pokemon looked down at it and laughed. "So what do you want? Get it back to him?"

"That is the plan."

"Well, you can give up on that idea right now!" Hitmonchan cried as he ran at Nero with a Mach Punch. The poor Shinx didn't even have a chance before he was punched back into the wall, this time making a visible depression. "That's my partner you cheater!" screeched Raiga. He sped at the boxer with a Quick Attack, nailing him in the stomach with his elbow.

While this occurred, Hitmonlee and Hitmontop turned their attention to us. "Looks like these two tried to lay low brother," said Hitmontop in a noticeably deeper voice than his brothers. "Should we change that?"

"Let's." Hitmonlee agreed as he ran at us with a Rolling Kick. I had just enough time to brace for the attack with a Withdraw before his foot hit my shell. The force knocked me around like a pinball, and I was surprised he hadn't shattered my shell with that kick. Once I stopped spinning enough to come out, I saw that Phloe was already having a hard time with Hitmontop, who kept coming at her with Triple Kicks. She tried to block with just her one arm, but it wasn't working all that well for her.

"Hey, leave her alone!" I yelled at him. He stopped spinning as he heard this, turning around to face me. His face spread into a sadistic grin, before he began Quick Attack directed at me while at the same time Hitmonlee came with another Rolling Kick. Deciding to go with something tried and true, I retreated once more in a Withdraw, allowing my shell to take a beating and ricochet me around the room.

"This is so not a C-Rank mission!" I complained as I waited to slow down and come out again. Nero had managed to get into the game and was currently tag-teaming Hitmonchan with Raiga. He came at the boxer's face with a Spark, which was blocked as he put his fists up to protect himself, but then Raiga came back with a Psychic and threw out Hitmonchan's feet out from below, toppling him over.

"Take that!" Raiga jeered. This in response earned him an uppercut to the chin as Hitmonchan immediately countered with Revenge and tossed Raiga back like a ragdoll.

Some good came out of this as Raiga soared across the cave and landed on top of the other two brothers, both of whom were about to trap Phloe in a corner. "Thanks Raiga!" she smiled.

"No…no problem…madame." The Elekid sputtered in disorientation before he dropped to the floor, knocked out for the moment. Hitmonlee shoved the sparkplug off of him and tried to get Hitmontop up. Thankfully, it seemed that he was down for the count. "You freak! You realize you're going to pay for that!" He screamed at us all before jumping up and coming down with a Jump Kick that hit Phloe square in the chest, barely missing her broken arm. She yelped for half a second as the breath was knocked out of her and she crumpled in a heap on the floor.

I was furious at this, and began to lose myself. I felt instinct takeover as I inhaled deeply feeling a pressure build up within. Blowing, I found myself shooting a Water Gun at Hitmonlee, who was clearly not expecting it. He jumped up to avoid it, and came down with another Jump Kick that hit me in the side of the face. I could feel my mouth gush with blood from the hit as I was launched back.

I landed on my back, definitely not the best thing for the situation. I struggled as quickly as possible to get up, seeing Nero attacking Hitmonchan with another Spark as I did so. I could see Hitmonlee casually making his way over to me, his eyes showing me his amusement.

"We could stop here you know," he began. "There's no need for any unnecessary deaths here. Especially to someone as nice as you friend here," He pointed over to Phloe. "Or even him." He motioned to Raiga. As he continued his slow march to me, I continued to rock side to side to flip over, or at least get a look around me to come up with an idea. I saw the TM that wasn't our clients lying off to the side of me, easily within reach. I grabbed for it.

"Please, don't continue the fight," Hitmonlee said, not at all noticing what I was doing. "We could all leave on good terms. Each of you with your lives and us with our…repossessions. I do believe it's a fair trade and…Hitmonchan, what are you doing?!" he cried in shock. Said pokemon was at the moment losing his fight with Nero, who came at Hitmonchan's head with a Tackle, toppling the cheerleader and knocking him out in the process. Nero huffed for a few seconds and grinned at me before collapsing on top of a pile of berries and nearly passing out himself.

"Well then," Hitmonlee said as he turned back to me. "I do believe things are going to turn for the worse. So sad, I wished you could have all lived. Mm, too bad. Goodbye now."

"You're right. Goodbye!" I said back to him, opening my mouth and allowing a blue orb of energy to form before blasting an Ice Beam at him. He had no time to react, and was instantly frozen in a block of ice.

Knowing the threat to be over, I sighed in relief and continued to rock side to side to right myself once again. Eventually I succeeded, but not of my own doing. As I got back up, I saw Nero next to me, weakly standing up on his own legs. "How can you help me? You…you're just as beat as me if not worse."

"Oran Berry." Was all he said.

We gathered the three Hit 'Em Bros. in a heap before proceeding to gather our own comrades. Raiga wasn't nearly as bad off as we were, but he was still pretty beat. Phloe on the other hand was just as bad as us. Just looking at her unconscious made me feel ever closer to slipping away as well.

"Just hang in there Tide," I heard as Nero encouraged me. "Hit the Badge to go back home. I've got the TM."

Just before my mind slipped away, I pressed the button and transported all of us back to Treasure Town, back into the Guild.

* * *

**I hope I did Fulmine justice for their intro. Please tell me if I need to fix anything i'm none. Next chapter will be up whenever I can manage to write it. Hopefully it will be soon, but we'll see.  
And please review if you have anything you think that I can do better here. I at least took SakuraFurude's pointer with the dungeons for the moment, but I'd love to hear some other things that I should fix. Thanks everyone, and I'll see you all next time.**


	10. Recuperating

**I'm back to writing this, thank goodness. I'm terribly sorry to anyone who has been reading this and waiting for an update. I was beginning to feel that it wasn't worth finishing, but now I'm good. So here's a nice chapter for everyone that I've had on the backlot for two months now -_-'  
****I hope you all enjoy it.**

**I'd also like to give thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. You guys (although few) are part of the reason why I feel I must finish what I've started. Especially thanks to FirebirdXoX for encouraging me to continue this. Hope you guys like it!**

* * *

Chapter 9: Recuperating

The murmur of voices woke me up. Slowly but surely, I woke up. The brightness of the room was enough to cause me to shut my eyes again, but a few seconds later I opened them fully and with less annoyance.

A Chansey was standing at my side, and for the first time I realized I must be in the hospital back in Treasure Town. The white sheets and the overall peacefulness was a dead giveaway. "Oh goodness!" she exclaimed, taken aback by the fact that I was awake. "We didn't think that you'd wake up for at least another day or so! You must be recovering quite well!"

"Mm…how long have I been out?" I rubbed my eyes, there was no denying I would welcome another day of sleep.

"Oh at least three days! You and the others were carried in here by Team Lightwater and Team Hades. Aren't you lucky to have such nice friends?"

'Team Hades? Styx? THREE DAYS?' My mind screamed with questions. It didn't make any sense. Unless I was dreaming or something…

"Hey nurse! Did he wake up or something?!" I heard a familiar voice ask.

"Yes! You may come in and visit if you'd like. Just be sure to come and get me if he needs any help." Chansey said. She walked out the doorway at the end of the room to leave me to my guests.

A couple of minutes later, the entirety of Team Sting walked in full of grins. "We thought you were dead!" Scorp suddenly bawled, jumping up to the bed and practically into my face.

"Wah! Get off of me!" I cried out in shock. The force of Scorp's body made me lose balance, falling out of the bed and onto my head.

"You numbskull! You probably put him in that bed for another week!" Pin scolded as he buzzed over to Scorp and began to repeatedly jab the Gligar with his drills.

"I didn't mean to!"

"You never mean to!"

Puffer moved a ways away from his teammates, inching ever so closer to the door. "I do believe I'll just go now…and Tide, the Chansey told us that you will very likely be let out today since you have woken up." He told me. He hopped out of the room in his attempt to ignore the bickering between his teammates. I nodded and began to crawl back into the bed.

"Hey Puffer, get back here! We weren't even here for five minutes!" Scorp yelled as he took off in pursuit of the Qwilfish. Pin sighed again. "I suppose we'll be seeing you and Phloe around. And before you ask, we already visited her just before you. She was actually awake before you even though she looked to have taken more of a beating than you did. Lucky girl, I'll tell you," He began to buzz to the exit. "Take care Tide. It won't be very long before you're released. And when do get out, tell me all about your mission."

I collapsed in my hospital bed, glad to be free of company for the moment. In the silence I was given, I began to think again of my last mission. 'It's been three days since then…I wonder what's happened. Nurse Chansey said that Team Lightwater and Team Styx helped me and the others into here. I mean, Lightwater I can kind of see. Since Spade was a human and everything…which still boggles my mind now that I can't be considered just a freak accident. And then Team Hades helped me. Team Hades, of all people. I hope that Chansey was kidding. Like a cruel joke. Or even a mispronunciation, or that I misheard what she said. It doesn't make any sense why Styx and his team would help ME. Styx hates my guts, I'm a human. So why would he help me?'

"Uh, excuse me sir?" Chansey had walked in and broken my train of thought. I looked up slowly, my mind still reeling over everything. "Yeah?" I asked slowly. "Er, you may leave if you would like. Your teammates are waiting outside for you. They already know you're awake, in case you were wondering."

"Thanks. Thanks a lot!" I said with a sudden burst of happiness. I forgot about my problems with Styx and jumped out of the bed unsteadily. I was a little rough on my legs again after being down for three days like this. I couldn't believe that fact either.

I followed Chansey out of the hospital to find Phloe, Nero, and Raiga idling around outside. At first I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, until I noticed that Phloe was out of her sling.

"Tide!" She shouted and ran up in an embrace, causing me to blush slightly. "I'm so glad that you're okay!" Nero and Raiga ignored us and just looked off in random directions. Phloe let go of me with a blush as well. "Er…yeah. I was afraid you would have been out longer after our fight."

"Are you kidding? I was afraid you would have had it a lot worse. I see that you were fortunate to recover before I did. And…your arm."

"My arm?" She looked down and laughed. "Oh yeah, I had almost forgotten. But, I'm good to go! Even better, the Hit 'Em Bros. didn't harm it any more than it already had been!"

I smiled and scratched the back of my head as I looked around. "Funny. It's weird to see you without your sling. Of course, that's only because that's what I've mostly seen you with. I'm happy that you're finally better though. And I'm happy that you guys are okay as well. Don't think that I forgot you two." I said to Team Fulmine.

Nero rolled his eyes. "We didn't." he said.

At this moment, Raiga decided to be typical him. "Hey, quick question here! Did we or did we not complete this mission? Me and Nero ARE the best rookie team around. Well, at the moment…but that we need to keep up the good missions. We can't afford to mar our record a bunch like this!"

"Relax," Nero quietly said. "I grabbed the TM. Tide and I took out the rest of the Hit 'Em Bros."

"So we completed the mission?"

"…Yes."

"ALRIGHT! Another good ending! Well, besides the fact that we got our bums handed to us. I suppose that's because we haven't really done too many missions to take down outlaws."

"That may be so, but I don't think that was all," Phloe said. "There was no way that was a C-Rank mission. They were far too powerful to deal with. Maybe a B-Rank, but still…why would they make that mistake?"

"A slip-up?" I suggested. "I mean, who really knows? Could've been a number of things."

"Your right. It could have been a mistake."

"Or sabotage!" Raiga suddenly added. The three of us turned and looked at him like he was crazy. Then again, I think it was enough to justify that he was.

"Sabotage? Are you serious?" I asked incredulously.

"Well, we are the best rookie team and…"

"Yeah, I get that much. But I don't think that justifies enough for sabotage. You must be over thinking this." I said.

"Yes Raiga. There's not enough to justify your claim." Said Nero. The Elekid's grin fell and he kicked the dirt at his feet. "It was an idea…"

"Come on; let's go Raiga." Nero said to cut off his partner. The Shinx turned around and walked off in the direction of the guild.

I looked to Phloe. "So…what should we do now? Go back to the guild?"

"Why not?" she shrugged. "We don't really have anything else to do. And I'm sure that Wigglytuff will want to know what happened to us." She said.

As we made our way through town, something in the back of my head kept gnawing at me. "Hey, uh, Phloe? I have a question for you."

"Go ahead."

"Do you know who got us in the hospital here?"

She tilted her head back to think after I said this. "To be truthful…no, not really. No one ever told me. Why, do you know?"

"Team Hades."

Phloe stopped in her tracks. I went a few more steps before turning back to her. "…Are you kidding me?" she asked.

"Unfortunately, no," I said. "It doesn't make a bit of sense to me either. I mean, Styx hates our guts, does he not?"

"Of course. You for being a human, and me for protecting you."

"Yeah. So the question remains: why on earth did he and his team help us out all of a sudden? It's not their nature to have helped us to live, of all things."

"Another mystery of life," Phloe sighed. "How about we don't trouble ourselves over it for now. I think it would probably be safer not to question it anyways." She said finally as we arrived at the base of the guild. "Let's just forget about it. If I were to bet anything, it was because Wigglytuff or Chatot made them do it."

"You're probably right," I agreed. We walked up the steps and made our way back into the guild, only to be greeted by Chatot.

"Team Impact? You're out of the hospital?"

"Yep. We just got out, Chatot."

"Well that's wonderful news!" He said. "I must alert Guildmaster Wigglytuff right away…it was no surprise to expect Team Fulmine back already, but seeing you two back so soon…amazing!" He said as he flew off.

"So what should we do now?" Phloe asked me. I shrugged.

"I really don't know. It's the late afternoon…so there's not much to do right now. I suppose we could go and talk to Team Sting. Pin wanted me to tell him about our mission, but had to leave since Scorp was a bit…emotional."

"How so?"

"He unleashed the waterworks."

"Oh…I see," she said. "Well, I don't see why we shouldn't go. It'll pass the time for us. And besides, who knows what could happen with them."

* * *

"So wait, Tide here used a random TM, hoping it would work, and began to unleash cold fury on those guys?" Scorp scratched his head in confusion. "I would think that a human would have a harder time at that…"

"Probably the fact that the disc drilled the information of the move into my head is why I was able to use Ice Beam on the Hit 'Em Bros." I replied. We were all in Team Sting's room with Phloe and me telling our story to the three of them. Pin and Puffer nodded in understanding at what I had just said.

"Makes sense," Puffer commented. "I would happen to know how a TM goes, and I can't see why it wouldn't work for any pokémon, regardless of...previous circumstances."

"Still, that's awesome that you used Ice Beam! Can you do it again?" Scorp asked. I shrugged, and not being one to deny a request, went ahead and fired another Ice Beam. Unfortunately, I wasn't really thinking of where I was aiming, and ended up having Scorp completely consumed by the beam, freezing him solid.

"Agh! I didn't mean to do that!" I jumped in fear. Pin and Puffer looked at each other and shrugged as best as they could.

"He had it coming," Pin said. "Besides, that was a better punishment for earlier than just me stabbing him repeatedly. Coming from you, that should have gotten through the fool's skull."

At the moment, Fate had decided to be unusually cruel to me as Chatot flew into the room. "Team Sting, I have an important message to-my goodness! What happened in here?!" He shrieked as he spotted the frozen Scorp in the center of everyone.

I looked to Phloe nervously, and she subtly motioned for me to run out of the room. "Tide? Do you have any idea how this happened? Uh…Tide?" Chatot asked, but realized too late that I was no longer in the room, leaving just him and Team Sting. "Pin? Any clue?" He asked, turning his attention to the Beedrill.

"Team Snowstorm passed by a moment ago. It was Chiller the Glalie."

"Always the prankster…" sighed Chatot. Pin sighed in relief that Chatot had bought the lie. As he and Chatot began talking, Phloe and I scurried away to our room.

"That was too close for comfort," I said as we got back. Phloe collapsed on her bed.

"Too much excitement for just getting out of the hospital." She said. I chuckled and sat down on my own bed.

"So it really ended with you using Ice Beam? And you managed to pull off a Water Gun! I would say that you must be getting used to your new life." Phloe mentioned to me. I smiled at this.

"Yeah, it seems so. And I'm actually kinda glad. It's not that I don't miss being a human…I do. But this…it seems that if I'm going to be stuck here as a pokémon, I guess it isn't so bad. Sure, I could have died the last mission. All of us could have. But the fact that I managed to pull of what I did is more than enough to make me happy. Too bad it won't last."

"Why not?"

"One pokémon: Styx."

"Oh yeah…" Phloe said as her mind drifted into thought. "Wait, remember what you told me? Team Hades carried us to the hospital!"

"And it still makes no sense to me." I said. "Once again, Styx hates my guts. And if he does, so do his cronies. So I see no reason as to why they helped, even if they were told to."

"Maybe there's something more to them than what we have seen?"

This caused me to burst out laughing. The prospect that Styx would ever have a heart, or to be kind to us, or most anyone for that matter, seemed laughable. Phloe looked at me indignantly. "I don't see what's so hilarious. You never know, he could just be nicer than he seems."

"And you would definitely suggest that after he was the reason your arm was crushed, which by the way you just managed to get fully healed."

She looked at her arm with a grimace, remembering how the painful experience was for her. I could see several tooth marks that would probably be permanent scars on her. "Please don't remind me. I would rather forget it…like another thing I would rather not remember…" She said as she seemed to disappear off into her thoughts. Complete silence followed, and I looked to her to see what was wrong.

"Uh, Phloe? Something the matter?" I asked. She ignored what I said, and continued to stare in space, absorbed in her mind. I got up on my feet and waved my hand in front of her face. "Hello? Are you here? Or even alive?"

* * *

_Phloe's POV_

I could hear Tide, but I ignored every word he said. I had gone too far into my memories this time, and I was recalling the times before. The times that seemed…so long ago. Even though it had only been what? Two years? Three years? I couldn't exactly remember. Not that I really wanted to, as much as it pained me.

It was several years ago though, and that much I can be certain. But what happened…was so painful for me. It was back when I lived with someone else in my tree. That someone…my sister, Cypress. To be even more correct, my twin. We never knew our parents, and we were just raised by the other pokémon of the forest. We never cared in that respect, and we just lived life the way we wanted: to have fun and enjoy every moment of it. Neither of us expected anything worse to come. Oh how wrong we were.

It was another average day, and I had just come back after gathering berries for our dwindling supply. I walked in and found Cypress lounging around on a chair, obviously bored. "Hey sis," she said, looking up as I walked in. "Did you get enough?"

"Plenty. I think that we'll be good for over a week with what I got," I had said, taking the sack and putting it away. "What are you up to?"

"Nothing."

"Isn't that obvious? How about we go see if anyone's up for a game or something?"

Cypress jumped off of her chair and was beginning to head out the door before I was even finished speaking. "You don't have to tell me twice! Let's get going, I need to do something to clear up the monotony!" She ran out of our house and left me in the dust. "Hey, wait up for me!" I laughed.

The weather on that day was perfect; it was not too cold or hot, just a perfect spring day. The two of us walked around the forest trying to see if some of our friends were around. That was when I began to notice that something was off. The forest was mostly silent, spare for a few far-off noises of traveling pokémon and the sound of the wind in the trees. It definitely wasn't this silent before when I was grabbing berries. Actually, there had been a huge hustle and bustle when I had been out not even a half an hour before.

We went around seeing if anyone wanted to come and play at the lake or have a game of tag or something. Unfortunately, no one did. In fact, we received no answers from any place that we tried. I could have sworn I heard rustling in some houses, but nothing more. We eventually just settled on going down to the lake by ourselves. "Somewhat ought to be there." That had been Cypress' logic. Well, when we got down there, it proved that Cypress was right. In all the wrong ways.

"Hey, who're they?" She had nudged my arm with her elbow and pointed to the edge of the lake. As we got closer, we could see that a Shedinja was floating over the edge of the lake as it spoke to a Xatu and a hulking Garchomp. Curiosity got the best of us and we quietly walked to the edge of the forest and hid behind some of the trees. From there we were able to hear what the three pokémon were saying.

"…You're certain?" The Shedinja asked in a gritty monotone. The other two nodded.

"I am certain of it," the Xatu replied. "I cannot say if, or when, it will truly happen. You know how time works."

"Yes. You've explained that to me many times before." Shedinja answered.

"Right. But if this does happen at all, you can expect some…interesting aftershocks."

"Aftershocks? By what means?"

"More than you can imagine. Like I said, my vision brought me many sights. All unbelievable. Arceus. And a pokémon that would devastate everything, and…kill you. And…"

I could see Shedinja narrow his eyes at this. "You didn't mention an extra part. My death was bad enough. What else could there be?"

"Someone shall come. That person, along with a Treecko, shall threaten your plans. They shall bring you pain through rejection and fear. You shall become foolish in you attempts to regain favor. And that shall lead up to your death."

The Shedinja visibly sighed at this. "So be it. I shall do all in my power to prevent such. As time is not set in stone, I shall prevent it all. Even if it defies Arceus himself."

The Garchomp and Xatu were taken aback by this statement and they exchanged mixed looks of fear and skepticism. "You can't hope to defy Arceus!" the Garchomp shouted. "He knows, and he does what he wishes. You can't interfere!"

"I will do what I must do. I must succeed. And I shall start with the final part of your prophecy. The one to come. Just who am I looking for besides a Treecko?"

Xatu closed his eyes for a moment as he brought the vision back to memory. "I cannot be sure. It was never a concrete form as to whom or what it shall be. All I am certain of is the Treecko friend."

Cypress and I looked at each other nervously, but turned back to continue watching. Unfortunately, I took a slight step back and snapped a twig beneath my feet, instantly attracting unwanted attention.

"…We have company" Shedinja said. Without saying another word, he shot several Shadow Balls in our direction, decimating the trees we were hiding behind.

"Run Phloe!" Cypress cried as she took off into the forest to avoid the three pokémon. I saw the Garchomp grin maliciously at me before I turned tail and ran to catch up with my sister. It was times like this that being a Treecko had unbelievable benefits as I speedily jumped through the trees. I could make out Cypress up ahead until a Dragonbreath cut through the trees and knocked me off balance. I landed on my stomach but got back up quickly, only to see the Garchomp charging through the trees and brush like they were nothing. I ran even faster at this point to avoid him.

Without a doubt, I had lost Cypress. I could have only imagined where she went, but I knew that she was smart enough not to hide in our home or anyone else's. Believing that she would have gone further into the remote areas of the forest, I turned right to do the same. After I did so, I could hear the crashing of trees lessen and grow more and more distant. I found a small ravine and hid in there, hoping the best for my safety and for Cypress. "Please Arceus," I prayed. "Please help the both of us get through this alive. Don't let them find either of us."

Fate could have never been crueler. After what seemed like hours, I was beginning to think of leaving and going back home, sure of the fact that they had moved on. Before I left my safe haven, a scream split the quiet afternoon air, gripping my heart. I knew who that scream belonged to. It was Cypress.

* * *

"You're sure that this is the Treecko?" The Shedinja asked Xatu. Garchomp was grinning psychotically as he held the whimpering Treecko girl by her foot. Xatu looked to the Treecko and searched his mind for the vision. After a moment he nodded to the Shedinja.

"Unmistakably. This is the one from my vision."

The Shedinja looked at the Treecko with malice. "What is your name?" He asked. The Treecko stuttered at first, but managed to choke out a "Cypress." The Shendinja floated up to her level. "Tell me Cypress, did you think you could get away after hearing that? And imagine, you would have been armed with that knowledge to ensure its reality. But I can't have that, as I'm sure you can understand. Now tell me," he said, slowly turning his body 180º. "Have you ever heard about Shedinjas? Remarkable thing about us, really. We have a unique ability that we have little control over, but it can be quite intriguing. Some would go so far to say, soul-stealing…" he said as his black hole of a back was revealed to Cypress, who quickly shut her eyes and looked away.

The Shedinja looked to Xatu. "If you would please?"

Xatu nodded. "Of course." His eyes glowed blue as he used Psychic to force Cypress to look at the Shedinja. A scream escaped her mouth as she felt her life being sucked out of her in a rushing whirlwind that led to oblivion.

* * *

I never knew what happened to her. All I heard was the scream. I never found a body or anything, so I have always presumed that she was dead. And now, sitting here with Tide, I look back. And I realize…that maybe it was me they were talking about. Or it was Cypress. Nonetheless, I hope to never see those three again. That they nearly killed me…I fear that they would only try it again.

I look at Tide now, and he's still staring at me expectantly. How long have I been in my thoughts?

"Phloe? You've been quiet for a few minutes, and seriously have been out of touch with the world. I was afraid I would have to try and use Water Gun or something." He tells me with a sheepish grin. I shake my head to clear out the memories once again, the painful memories of a time I wish to forget.

"Come on Tide; let's go see what else we've missed over the past few days." I say as I stand up and walk out of the room. He scrambles to his feet and stumbles after me.

"Hey, uh, you aren't going to tell me what that was all about now, are you?" he asks as we walk out. I ignore him as if I didn't even hear the question.

* * *

**I wasn't sure what I was thinking when I wrote this. I had always had a certain plot element in my head for this story that I wanted to add, but wasn't sure when I would. So I did here with the flashback that we have at the end. A little background into Phloe's history, opening up some interesting things I'm sure. Although I think I did things a bit obvious with Xatu's prediction. Oh well, it'll bring important issues in the future to this story.  
I don't know when exactly the next chapter will come. My other story is still a priority for me to finish, but I will continue to work on this now, unlike how I have been doing...  
See you guys next time!**


	11. Training

**At long last, another chapter. And the introduction of the last OC team (For the time begin). Thanks to Firebird XoX for her submission.**

**...Not much else to say here. This took way too long for me to get done, and now that I look at it, it is way too long. 13 pages on OpenOffice. 13! And I don't even think that this is my longest chapter in words...**

* * *

Chapter 10: Training

The rest of our first day back went by mostly uneventfully. We were fortunate to not have to run into Team Hades at all. I had a feeling that if we did, the ending would not have been all too pleasant for Phloe and I.

The following day came all too soon. It wasn't that Phloe and I weren't ready to get back to doing missions, there was just a totally different problem that we didn't want to come back to.

"HEY! I already called you BOTH FIVE TIMES! Now get CRACKIN' or I'm going to SERIOUSLY get MAD!" Loudred was completely indifferent to the fact that we were still getting back on our feet. "Not MY problem," was his answer when I had complained about it to him.

Grumbling, I pushed myself up and off of my stomach, greeting Phloe good morning. She smiled and said the same. "Back to the way things were. Only this time, I'm good as new!" She flexed her arm to emphasize this.

"Let's hope that Wigglytuff and Chatot don't think that this means that we can start tackling B-rank missions or ones like the last one, except going at it solo. If they said that, I would quit right then and there."

"No you wouldn't," Phloe countered. "There'd be nowhere for you to go to."

"Sure there would. I could go…there…to that place…with…everyone."

She smirked. "Come on, let's get going. We'll eat breakfast and see what kind of mission Chatot wants us to do. If we're lucky, he'll let us go and pick whatever we want. Then we can do a simple retrieval mission at the Beach Cave or someplace like that."

I brightened up at this. "Okay, you're right about that. But if we do have some intense mission that requires us to take down a whole gang, I am getting out of this place as soon as possible."

* * *

"Team Impact, welcome!" Pin happily welcomed us as we took our usual spots by the rest of his team. Everyone had already begun to dig in as always, but before I took a bite of the Hondew berry in front of me, I felt this unmistakable feeling of being watched. Twisting around in my spot, I looked all around the mess hall even though I knew it was silly to think that someone was staring me down, and that I would even find them was even more laughable.

I could see Team Fulmine down the table from us with Nero slowly eating his meal while Raiga hopped around like a child, ranting on and on about the mission that his team had shared with mine.

Moving on from this scene, I saw the innumerable other teams conversing and eating, some like savages, others like stuck-up snobs. "All different backgrounds, I see. We're just a special kind of motley crew here, aren't we?" I commented under my breath, making sure that no one heard in case someone took offense for some reason. I saw Team Lightwater far across the room minding their own business. Spade seemed to be unsettled for some reason and I could only begin to imagine why. Her partner Pika didn't seem to notice her behavior at all; he just kept eating and prepping himself for the day.

Nearby Lightwater I happened to catch Team Hades. Omen and Demi were busy chatting away about something, the former only nodding his head every so often as he listened to the Weavile yammer with no end in sight. Opposite to them and facing my direction was Styx. The Houndoom had his head lowered and his eyes were narrowed towards me. We made eye contact, resulting in him growling. I thought that I had seen some embers escape from between his teeth. Slowly, I turned away and tried to distract myself by joining in on what Phloe and Team Sting were talking about.

"…Scorp says there's no hard feelings after yesterday's little incident. Isn't that right?" Pin faced the Gligar expectantly. He rolled his eyes at his team leader and snorted.

"You kidding? Tide froze me in a block of ice and – yeowch!" Scorp jumped out of his spot on the bench and clung to the ceiling for dear life. Pin smirked and brandished his drills.

"That's Twineedle for you. Now get down before you cause a scene."

"You already started a scene!" cried Scorp from his spot on the rock above our heads.

Phloe and I took the time to excuse ourselves and leave before anything worse could happen. As we left, it became more evident that others were taking interest in the argument between Pin and Scorp. Turned around and began to walk backwards to watch what happened as I left. Phloe called my name with a tone of warning, but I found out too late what exactly she was worried about.

My shell collided something rock-solid, and when I twisted to see what it was, I instantly regretted it. There was Styx in his irate glory, if you want to call it "glory." Omen was off to the side, and Demi was grinning mischievously as she kept looking from me to Styx. The Houndoom lowered his head to mine and snarled. "Human," he spat. "I have to warn you. I'm not your biggest threat in this guild. There are others whom I shall not mention that would find nothing more pleasing than to kill you by their own hands."

I was taken aback by this. Styx was…warning me? "W-why exactly are you helping me?"

He threw his head back in a laugh, getting Demi to join along with him. "Don't make me laugh. I have no intentions of ever helping you. I just wanted you to be on your guard. You and your little girlfriend there, you're mine to kill. After what you have done to me…"

"For the record, I've done nothing to you," I argued. "Now calm down, _Cerb_."

Styx shot me a look and continued talking. "Not that you know of. Humans are all alike; therefore none can ever be trusted. That's my problem with you. After what you did to me…" He broke off his statement there and fled. Had he not been so quick, I could have sworn that I had begun to see tears in his eyes. Demi and Omen were alarmed by his sudden leave, and they quickly followed after him. Phloe walked up equally confused as I.

"Girlfriend? What the -"

"Just let it go."

"Fine," she pouted, still miffed by Styx's comment. "But what was up with him at the end? Was he crying?"

I shrugged. "I have no clue really. I thought I was imagining it, but if you saw it too…maybe there's much more to him than we know of."

"No, really?" Phloe gave me a look. "It's obvious he's hiding something. It must have something to do with a history dealing with humans because nothing could have spawned that kind of hatred. And the way he spoke near the end. It almost seemed like he knew you…wait, what was that you had called him?"

I hadn't been expecting the question. To be truthful, I could hardly remember what it was. Struggling to remember, it finally came back to me. "I think it was…Cerb. But I have no idea where that came from. I've never even heard that name before."

Phloe began to think a bit, as if she was trying to piece things together. "Hmm…I have a theory but…nah, it can't be."

"What?"

"Nothing. Nothing important, I don't think. Just a silly little idea that came to me. Now come on, let's go see what we've got to do today."

* * *

"Training!" Chatot squawked in our faces. The two of us were standing erect in front of the parrot as he flew around by the wanted board. As we recovered from his outburst, I was the first to ask the obvious.

"Uh, if you don't mind, Chatot but…what do you mean by 'training.'"

"It's simple! The Guildmaster understands that your team was put through a rough time after your last mission with Team Fulmine. While they managed to pull through okay, your team on the other hand...well, let's just say that there was much to be desired."

"So, to put it bluntly, you're saying our team is trash." I sighed.

This caught Chatot off guard. "Er, no no, not 'trash,' just in need of some improvement. So the Guildmaster and I thought it appropriate to send your team for a day of training over at the Marowak Dojo. If tomorrow, your team still needs the practice, then we can send you over again. But for until then, no missions. Just practice and become acquainted to the kind of threats you may have to deal with in the future."

Phloe leaned over and whispered to me. "Well, it's not a mission." Chatot seemed satisfied and took his leave, flying back downstairs to tend to the other teams that were moseying around.

"Should we go?" I asked Phloe. She looked around and shrugged.

"I don't see why not. Chatot is right, of course. We could use that kind of extra training, after seeing what happened on our last mission..."

I stopped her. "Yep, got it. No need to go back there really. It was humiliating for us all, but we still got the job done. So let's move on and focus with what we have to do. Cool thing is, I know exactly where we have to go."

* * *

"So this is that dojo you were telling me about?" Phloe and I were currently standing outside of the massive complex that was the Marowak Dojo. The rocky exterior and the creepy skull and crossbones made the place seem more unfriendly and frightening than it actually was.

I nodded and walked beside the open entrance. "Yep, this is the place. Come on, let's go see Marowak."

Inside it was considerably darker. With little sunlight getting in, and only a few torches to light up the main area, it was quite dreary, to say the least. Marowak was nearby, asleep. He had his bone propped up and was currently leaned against it for support as he snoozed. I grinned mischievously to Phloe and quickly scampered over to Marowak's side.

"Tide," she warned. "You better not."

I rolled my eyes "Come on, it's obvious he's bored himself to sleep. This will break the monotony for him." Phloe sighed and walked off, preferring not to have any part in what I was about to do. Taking a deep breath, I cupped my hands over my mouth and leaned next to Marowak. "TIME TO WAKE UP, MAROWAK!"

The skull-headed pokémon snapped his head up and pulled his bone from underneath his arm. "WHAAA! I'm up! I'm up!" He whipped the bone around and accidentally whacked me across the face. This happened so fast that I wasn't able to figure out what had just happened until I was sent sprawling across the ground. I could hear Phloe laugh as I slowly stopped spinning on my shell to get a grip on everything. Marowak realized what he had done and quickly ran to help me up.

"Sorry about that. I didn't expect to have been woken up so suddenly," As he pulled me up, a glint of recognition played in his eyes. "Ah, I remember you! Tide, was it? Yes, yes. You finally came to train in my dojo, did you?"

I smiled. "Yeah, since we almost failed the last mission, Chatot wanted our team to come here and train for the day. And, this is my team," I motioned to Phloe. "Phloe, this is Marowak. Marowak, Phloe."

"Hello, Marowak." Phloe nodded in acknowledgment to him.

Marowak leaned on his bone and nodded. "Okay, so you're here for some training. Good deal, because I've got the best stuff that no one else will have. Specially designed dungeons of only a few floors that will give you training in any area you want. Want to gain some immunity to poison types? Try that area. Don't want to by knocked off of your feet by fighting pokémon? Do the fighting dungeon. I'm telling ya, this place is like no where else."

"Except for the real deal." Phloe pointed out. Marowak fell on his face at this comment, but pulled himself together.

"Er...ignoring that fact, what'll you two do? I've got every type under the sun to train with. Take your pick."

"You know best," I told Phloe. She rubbed the back of her head in thought.

"Well...I suppose we should try out something we know we might have trouble with. How about we do psychic for this time around?" She looked up to Marowak. "Would this be a life-threatening dungeon? We aren't that experienced with battling yet."

Marowak nodded to us absentmindedly. "Yep, yep. It'll be set for you guys when you go in," He pointed his bone down the hallway. "And be mindful, you may meet some other teams in the dungeons. But just go to the one marked for psychic, and you'll get to enter for three levels worth of baddies."

"'Kay, thanks Marowak," Phloe and I waved to him as we made our way to the marked dungeon. It was cruelly painted in a pink hue with the markings that read "psychic." Huh, weird that I could read that. Shoving that aside, I ran excitedly into the dark room before us without thinking. "Come on Phloe, let's get this show on the road!" I yelled. The Treecko sighed at my childish behavior and began to walk in.

"So where are all of the psychic pokémon?" she asked me.

"I don't know, maybe just –" I was cut off when my body was suddenly picked up and thrown across the dungeon. I crashed shell first into the rock that lined around the cave. The worst part was that I had hit so hard that I was stuck in the wall. Phloe quickly made her way over to help me, but took a moment to laugh at my situation.

"You have the worst of luck." She chuckled. I grunted and tried to wriggle my way free from the rock. This didn't work at all.

"Don't laugh at me," I said with more than a hint of annoyance. After a little more struggling I finally gave up and sighed at my inability to free myself. I looked down at Phloe from where I was and gave her an exasperated look.

"What?" she asked me, her voice somewhere between a laugh and a serious question. "What could you need me for?"

"To get me out." I glowered at her and pointed at my current state as if it wasn't enough reason. The Treecko rolled her eyes and began to walk away.

"Aw, I don't think that you really need my help. I mean, you're a human, so you can easily get yourself free from the rocks."

I groaned. Obviously Phloe was in a good mood for messing with me. "Come on, just pull me out of this. I just need you to – Whoa!" I was suddenly ripped out of the rock and thrown directly at Phloe. The Treecko was not prepared in the least for this, resulting in me being thrown into her.

"Ouch." I clutched my head as it throbbed from the impact. Opening my eyes, I saw that I was right on top of Phloe, and she was none too pleased.

"Get off of me. Now."

I blushed, but wasted no time in moving. There were things I feared, and being beaten by an irate girl was just one of them. "So...at least I'm free from the rocks."

"At the cost of humiliation." Phloe's voice told me that she wasn't going to let this go for a bit, even though it was a complete accident. She looked around the cave. Obviously there's something we aren't seeing here though. And whatever it was thought that it was being funny."

"There's such a thing as an 'accident.' Ever heard of it?"

She glared at me. "Look," she said. "I'm not mad at you. Well actually, I kind of am. But ignoring that, I am furious at whoever did that. Now come on, I want to find that miserable roach and -" Phloe growled when a pebble struck the side of her head. We looked across the cave where it came from, spotting a Ralts and a Spoink that looked none too friendly.

"Were you guys the ones who threw the rock at me?" Phloe asked the two, not at all trying to conceal her growing frustration.

"And threw me into the wall?" I added. The two opposing pokémon gave fleeting glances to each other before the Ralts raised its hands. A blue aura began to surround them, and I soon felt myself become picked up off of the ground. "...Crud." It didn't take a genius to figure out what was happening. Sure enough my body was lifted upwards and with a feeling of being let go, the aura disappeared and I fell twenty feet to the ground.

Phloe winced when I landed with a crunch right next to her. "You going to be okay?" She asked. I waved her off, spitting out bits of dirt and rock from my mouth.

"Yeah, just fine. Please don't worry about me, just find a way to take these two out! I'll help when I get the rocks out of my teeth." Phloe nodded and ran at the two psychic pokémon. Using a Quick Attack, she managed to avoid their attempts at catching her with another Confusion. I in the meantime was busy spitting more rocks out of my mouth. "Stinking psychic types. Why must they be so annoying when they are not with you?" I asked to no one in particular.

Phloe had reached the Ralts and Spoink, catching them by surprise due to the speed in which she had arrived. "Stop throwing us around!" She shouted, using a Pound attack to knock the Ralts onto the ground. The Spoink was shocked by her sudden attack, but shook this off and prepared to retaliate against her. Its pearl began to glow in multiple colors and before Phloe could do anything she was hit point-blank by a Psybeam.

"Hey! You can't hit a girl like that!" I stumbled to my feet and ran at the Spoink with a Tackle. I never did get to make contact, as the Ralts had recovered from its earlier shock and was now using Confusion on me again. "For crying out loud...I'm done with this!" I took a deep breath and felt a tickling sensation in my body. I blew at the Ralts, successfully managing a Bubble attack that hit the small psychic pokémon. Distracted by this, the aura faded once again and I fell to the ground, this time only a few feet.

"You alright, Phloe?" I yelled over to my Treecko partner. She was getting back on her feet and going back at the Spoink.

"Doing just fine!" she yelled back over her shoulder. With a grunt she used Pound on the Spoink. In an almost, comical fashion, the pig pokémon stayed in place, only bending back on its spring and rocking back and forth. "I don't think this guy will last too much longer!"

I decided to let her finish what she was doing and turned my attention back to the Ralts. It was having difficulty getting back up, its teeth gritted in pain. I suppose that it had spent plenty of time refining its psychic abilities, but didn't even bother with dealing with what happens when it finally was attack. I ran at him with a final Tackle, ramming the little guy into the rock wall behind it. With a cry, it crumpled into an unconscious state. I smiled at my triumph. "One down and -"

"Gyah!" I saw Phloe use Pound one last time on the Spoink, dropping the small pig onto its back and launching the pearl off of its head. Panting, Phloe took the moment to catch her breath before turning to me. "Both down. Woohoo. Now let's move on through this place. I'm already finding more to gripe about the psychic dungeon."

"So then we can be in a agreement that I pick the type next time we train here?" I asked with a hint of hopefulness. Phloe gave me a look that she wasn't going to say anything right now.

We soon found the ladder to the next floor, having to deal with only another Ralts. This one was a far better fight for us, since it was poorly prepared to fight us. The floor after that started out rather dull, with a good deal of time spent navigating our way around in search of a ladder or at least an enemy. One did finally come in the form of an Abra.

"I'll Tackle it from behind while you go full on with a Quick Attack!" I said going over the short plan I had made to attack the Abra. Phloe regarded my idea with caution.

"You know what the odds are that it will just Teleport away from here, right?"

I stopped for a moment, taken aback by the question. "Er, yeah, I suppose that's always a possibility. But that's why we attack from two different directions. He will be distracted by you while I go in for the kill."

Phloe went along with it, but still remained cautious. "Okay, Tide. I'll trust your judgment here, but I don't think it will work."

"It'll work, it's got to work!"

* * *

The Abra snored softly in its sleep. I hoped we had caught it in the middle of its sleep. Seriously though, how long do these guys sleep a day? Eighteen hours? Twenty hours? Man, they miss the whole day and they don't even care.

"Ready Phloe?" I whispered to the Treecko next to me. Sighing, she nodded. I tip-toed away, careful not to make too much noise, until I was just straight across the cave from Phloe. I gave a thumb-up to her and made a run for it. She followed my action and ran at the small pokémon.

When we were a few feet from the Abra, I thought we had had it. But fate is cruel, and the pokémon slipped away at the last second with a Teleport. Phloe and I were too close to slow down and we only managed to knock each other to the floor.

Phloe grunted and pulled herself up. "I told you that this would happen." I grumbled in acknowledgment. Standing up, we looked around for the Abra. "So where did he run off to? If he escaped this entire dungeon, that would be more than cheap."

Neither of us noticed a dark shape on the ceiling above our heads. The small shadow dropped below and landed onto my back with enough force to flatten me on my stomach.

"Move, slave." The Abra demanded. I tried to look back at him to argue, but I could only turn my head so far. Phloe took a step back in surprise.

"I said to move. Carry me like a little transport thingy."

"Transport thingy?" I chuckled and the Abra smacked me on the back of the head. Noticing Phloe hadn't said anything, I gave her a look of exasperation. "You really aren't being much of a help today, you know that?"

The Treecko shrugged indifferently. "Meh. What can I say, I just love to see you get into these things. Seems like the Legendaries just have it in for you, don't they? I bet they're having a grand old time with this, too."

"Ha ha ha, such a wonderful time. Now please stop doing this to me and get this guy off of me!"

"Actually, I think that I'll leave him there. Seems fair to everyone."

"How is this fair to me?!"

"You always seemed like you'd be good as helping others. This is a perfect opportunity to – hiyah!" Phloe broke off from what she was saying and sprung at the Abra. The little psychic type was caught off guard and thus unable to teleport in time. She slammed directly into him and brought him to the ground, allowing me to get up.

Phloe stood up and wiped some dirt off of her arms. Grinning, she motioned to the sitting Abra.

"Woah...my head is spinning...so dizzy...so...tired..." With a thud he fell onto his back, giving us a moment of peace.

"I can't tell whether to thank you or be mad at you," I said. Phloe thought about it and smiled at me.

"A simple thank you would suffice."

"Which is exactly what you're not getting. You could have told me you were going to help."

"Yes, but it should have been obvious. Would I really leave my partner down here, on a training mission?"

I never realized how dense and ignorant towards reality I was until she told me that. I smacked myself for doubting my partner. "Wow, I am really dense. That's just sad."

"Yes, it is. Don't think too much about it, we've all got flaws. Just, you have worse ones than everyone else." With that she ran off, leaving me standing there as what she said sunk in.

"Hey, wait up! And stop poking jokes at me!"

"We can add slow reaction to the category as well!" I heard her shout from around a bend in the cavern. Rounding the corner, I saw her just a short distance down. She had stopped and was watching something. I quickened my pace to find out what.

Phloe silently told me to quiet down when I got to her, and as she pointed into the next opening, I saw why. There were two pokémon, a Cubone and a Totodile, currently locked in combat with a Kirlia and two Beldums. At first I thought that the two were suicidal for even thinking of taking on opponents when the odds were clearly stacked against them. Watching them for just a while longer and I came to the conclusion that this was far from the truth.

The Cubone and Totodile were currently surrounded by the three rogues. The three quickly closed the distance between them, and at that moment they struck. Just as the Beldums tried to use a double-teamed Take Down, the Totodile jumped over them, allowing his partner to gracefully twist around and nail them with a Bone Club at the last second. The Totodile had sprinted past them and to the Kirlia, who was about to take a revenge shot against the Cubone.

"Hang on, Mia, I've got you're back!" He (judging from the voice anyways) launched himself, jaws snapping wildly at the Kirlia until he latched onto his target. The Crunch attack was successful, and the pokémon yelped in anguish. It tried to use Psychic on him, but he let go just in time. Jumping back, he shot a quick burst of a Water Gun during his retreat, infuriating the Kirlia even more. The Totodile looked at the Cubone, who had just thrown a Bonemerang at the two Beldum, dazing them even more.

"Trade?" He shouted over the raucous fighting. His partner was only too eager to oblige.

"Trade! Now!" They ran over to each others' opponents, using attacks of their own to distract attention to themselves. Suddenly they stopped, initiating what seemed to Phloe and I to be nothing more than a stare-down. The Kirlia and Beldums cautiously watched the two for their next moves, anticipating the worst. Suddenly, the Cubone's fist began to crackle with electricity, something I would have never expected in a million years. The Totodile also began his own attack as his claws began to blacked and elongate. They rushed the enemies, whom tried to defend as best as they could, the Beldums using Iron Defense and the Kirlia putting up a Safeguard. I had a feeling it would do no good, and I was certainly right.

The Thunderpunch drilled the stomach of the Kirlia, and with a cry it was thrust to the ground, visibly defeated. The Cubone caught her breath as her partner finished the job, Shadow Clawing the two steel types into submission. The Totodile looked over his work and when he was satisfied went over to his partner to check up on her.

"Doing good?" He asked.

"You know I am. That wasn't so bad of a fight."

At this point I couldn't help myself. Revealing Phloe and mine's presence, I walked out with an expression of pure awe. "You think that wasn't too bad? Are you kidding? Phloe and I would have been lucky to have won!"

I had obviously caught them by surprise. Now, just what gave that away? Either the fact that the Cubone proceeded to scream in surprise and pound my skull with her bone, or that the Totodile grabbed me in a choke hold when she was done.

"Who are you and just what do you think you are doing spying on us?" He demanded. I grabbed at this hand, trying to wrench it off of me to allow me to breathe again. Luckily Phloe came out at this point in time to prevent me from being killed.

"Sorry, sorry! We were coming through on our training session and we came upon you two," Phloe explained. The Totodile began to loosen his grip on my throat. "Tide here just decided to introduce himself, although we see that he wasn't thinking clearly...not that he does much anyways."

"Can we please stop attacking me today?" I choked out. "Both verbally and – ack! - physically?" I could only guess that my face was turning purple at this point in time. Hopefully the Totodile would let go soon...

"I don't believe that they're trying to kill us, Thor. You can calm down and let go of the Squirtle." The Cubone had stepped in and finally reminded everyone that I was slowly dying.

"Huh?" The Totodile, apparently named Thor, remembered that he was still suffocating me. "Oh, my bad," He let go of his grip and let me collapse to the ground. Fresh air rushed into my lungs and I coughed as I regained the ability to breathe again. Unfortunately, as one problem was solved, another soon emerged.

"...Can someone help me get up again? Kinda stuck here, kinda helpless due to this pain in the neck of a shell." Phloe pulled me up into a sitting position, where I stayed for a moment more to get my breathing back to normal. "...Okay...I'm good." I stumbled to my feet, and turned around to greet the team without threats of death this time around.

The Cubone looked at Phloe and I and pointed her bone back and for the between us. "So, sorry but, who are you two?"

"My name's Phloe." My partner extended a hand out and the other two shook it, although I could tell that Thor was still eyeing us warily. The Cubone pointed her bone at me.

"And you are?"

"Tide. We're Team Impact."

Thor grinned and murmured something. The Cubone looked at him. "What was that, Thor?"

"The human."

I let my head drop. Everyone knew, didn't they? If I could just get a little break from being known as "the human" and being discriminated, then I would be alright for once. But this guy-

"You know Tide isn't that bad," Phloe fired back. "Just because he was a human doesn't mean a thing."

Thor put his hands up in defense. "Woah, sorry. That came out wrong. I wasn't meaning to be discriminatory towards anyone. I have trouble saying things the way I want them said. No hard feelings, Tide?" Thor extended a hand out. I took it, but still wasn't positive he was being truthful.

The Cubone decided to break the tension that was steadily growing. "Yeah well, my name is Mia. And of course as you know, this is my partner, Thor."

"'Sup."

"Anyways, we're Team RainSkull."

"So you are a team?" Phloe asked. "Odd, I don't believe I've seen you guys around."

Thor and Mia shrugged. "Can't really explain that. We're usually around, but Chatot will often come and get us to go do some C-rank missions or something. We really don't mind, we love to fight."

"I could see that," I mentioned. "The way you beat those three. You've been battling for quite some time. And just where'd you learn those kinds of moves? Never would I have believed that until I saw it."

Mia smiled. "Not anyone's business, now is it?" she said sweetly. "We have our ways." I decided not to press the question further.

"So you two were training down here, too?" Thor asked us.

"Yep. Chatot told us that this was our mission for today. Looks like we're done." I pointed to the ladder at the end of the cave. How I hadn't noticed it before struck me as odd.

"Well, it was good to meet you both," Mia said. "I suppose we'll be seeing you around the Guild then? At least, if you manage to notice us now," she joked.

"Right," Phloe laughed. "Well...we best be off. I can only imagine how much time has passed since we first came in here."

We waved goodbye and headed over to the ladder. I could see Mia and Thor head off down the way we had come. Before long I could hear crashes and explosions, signifying that they had found more opponents.

"They were certainly an interesting group, weren't they?" I heard Phloe ask me.

"Well, they certainly seemed far more normal than everyone else I've met so far. I can't tell if that's a good or a bad thing."

"Regardless, let's go back to the Guild," Phloe hoisted herself out of the top of the ladder, I scuttled up after her. "Let's let Chatot know we're done. And after that, I'm going to go for a walk around town.

"You do that. Meanwhile, I am going to crash on my bed and sleep the rest of the day away."

Phloe raised an eyebrow in slight disbelief. "Suit yourself."

* * *

**So a couple of things happened in the chapter, the most important being, of course, the training and meeting of Team RainSkull. Woo. So what does the rest of the story look like at this point? Well, I would say another six chapters of mindless nothing before the main event begins. And then who knows? Well, of course I know, but I won't say anything. Plenty of twists coming your way!**

**Next chapter will be Deoxys-centric! I haven't brought him up in a while, and he's practically the star of the show here!**


	12. Dreams

**Look, it's a chapter! And like promised, with Deoxys as well!  
Hopefully I can get on a more regular schedule for the time being. SATs were last weekend, so now I've got nothing to stress and worry over (not that they were really stressful). But who cares, I've also got HeartGold! Just like I remember Gold being, but so much better. As I put this up I'm about to catch Sudowoodo. I'm taking my time through the game, I want to enjoy it.  
Enough ramblings, here's the chapter!**

Chapter 9: Dreams

That night, everyone had dreamt. It wasn't as if a single person, or a few did. Everyone was dreaming. Some were simple and fuzzy, some were nightmarish. Some were...more. Take mine, Tide, and as I would find out at a later time, Deoxys'. Ours were not typical dreams.

* * *

Deoxys had been asleep for two days now, and it was just beginning to be dawn once more. He was sitting cross-legged in what he had decided to call his "room." As he awoke, those cold, unfeeling eyes opened to familiar surroundings of rock and darkness. He scanned the rest of the mountain he was inhabiting. Not a soul was to be found.

He wasn't surprised by this. Most of the other pokémon had left the mountain weeks ago. They had all learned to fear his power, and the threat he posed to their lives. He didn't care. They were only distractions and obstacles.

The alien left these thoughts to focus back upon his dreams. "_Odd...these...dreams...they seemed to real. But I believe that I've learned more. A Treecko...and a...Squirtle. A very...special...Squirtle_," Deoxys eyes widened in realization as best as they could. "_Of course...he is the key. My destiny...my purpose. It all lies...with him. But just where?"_

Deoxys searched deeper into his memory to see more of his vision. _"Trea...sure Town. Yes...that is where I must go...but first...to find it. Arceus...why? Why do you make things so difficult for me?! WHY?!"_ Overcome with frustration and grief, Deoxys rose from the ground. He took off down one of the abandoned halls of the mountain, blasting a Hyper Beam attack as he did so.

He continued his blind flight through the endless corridors, firing off Hyper Beam after Hyper Beam in an attempt to ease his fury. He needed to be freed of his burden. He needed to find that Squirtle.

Soon enough, Deoxys finished his tantrum. His anger was calmed after he took it out on the rock that enveloped him. He returned to the small cave which he had called his home for the past several weeks. As he landed upon the ground, he took note of an unusual noise, a rumbling coming from deep within the mountain and was rapidly gaining volume.

"_Hmph. It seems that the place is collapsing. Shame, I was growing attached to it."_ In the blink of an eye, his body began to morph. His arms thickened and flattened out. The rest of his body gained an armored appearance as his head fused with the rest of his body. Looking straight up through the hole in the mountain he had created previously, he shot off into the sky.

A few hundred feet into the air, he stopped and took in the world around him. The sun was just now beginning to peek out from the horizon, its warm embrace slowly grasping the waking world. The rumbling was as loud as ever, and Deoxys noticed that the mountain had been nearly reduced to rubble at this point.

"_Now...to Treasure Town..."_ The alien felt a warm feeling coming from within him. _"Is this what it means to be...excited? I like it...very much."_

He transfigured his body once again, this time gaining a form that was the exact opposite of his shelled defensive form. His head elongated to a point in the back, and his limbs became rail-thin. This form was built for speed, and Deoxys knew that a quick aerodynamic body would get him to his goal all the faster. The excitement was building by the second.

Without any more thought given to his goal, Deoxys shot through the sky as fast as he could. Wherever Treasure Town was, he would find it. He knew that it was far from where he was now. How far, he wasn't sure. He did not know where Treasure Town lay. All he had was instinct, and a driving ambition to discover his destiny.

"_I don't know how...but Tide...I will find you...and then...I will figure out my destiny through the only logical method...your death..."_

Deoxys was satisfied with his logic. His dream, as he could decipher it, was a vision. His twisted interpretation was that he was to kill Tide, and then he would learn his purpose. And then...Arceus would come...

* * *

Like Deoxys, I, too, had a powerful dream. Unfortunately, it was not a vision of any kind. No, it was something more than that, something I wish I never had to go through with. My dream that night was a painful look at just who I was. Or rather, who I had been.

That night, I had crashed right after the training session Phloe and I engaged in. If I didn't know any better, I would have said that we had leveled up a bit and were stronger than before. Truthfully, I probably would be better off now had our new acquaintances Thor and Mia not tried to kill me. At least, Thor almost did.

Nonetheless, I was exhausted. It had not been a few minutes time before I fell asleep, without eating dinner at that. From there, my mind decided to treat me as guest to my past as a human, through one particular memory that has now impacted me more than I would have liked. In retrospect, I suppose it is nice that I was beginning to regain my memories. If only my memories weren't painful.

* * *

It had been about three years ago. I was several days north of Mauville City, only a short distance away from exiting the desert that lies between the city and Lavaridge. I had been spending the past week in Mauville for...something. I couldn't remember that much.

It was about midday, with the blazing sun high overhead, its head beating down upon me. The desert was nothing but sand, as well it should be, and the sandstorms were well beyond annoying at this point. Not even the brisk winds they brought would make this any better for me. Just ahead of me were the mountains. They signified the end of the desert, and if I could make a good way through them by evening then I would be making good time. It would only be another three or so days before I made it back to Fallarbor.

Thinking back, I can't even remember what my human form was like. It was just natural and there. My memories couldn't bring back that much detail at this point.

It was at this point that I noticed my companion. How I had not known of his presence before strikes me as odd. As the dream, or I suppose memory, continued, I stopped for a moment to look around for anything of interest. Aside from sparsely interspersed rocks around the bleached sand and cracked, parched earth, there wasn't much. I could not see any clouds that looked particularly worrisome. There were only a few fluffy white clouds coming from the west.

"Well Cerb, it looks like we'll cover a fair distance today," I commented to my companion. Smiling, I looked to my side.

There stood a proud Houndour, his eyes sharing the same kind of joy as mine. We were both ready to get out of this infernal desert once and for all. The Houndour, Cerb, yipped a reply to me. Being a fire type, he wasn't especially affected by the desert heat. Compared to what I thought of it, this was a nice day at a tropical beach to him.

I bent down and ruffled the fur on his head. "We should get moving, boy. Just because things are working out for us now doesn't mean something won't happen. You know how sudden the weather can change, no matter where you are."

Cerb whined a bit, as if what I said brought back a bad memory. Of course, it did just that. A year before he had...wow, I don't even remember that. When will my memory be complete again?

Anyways, the memory skipped ahead a few hours. We were both now running as fast as our bodies could carry us. The mountains continued to taunt us with their distance, even though they were now less than a mile away. But with what chased us, it seemed like eternity.

The sandstorms had ceased. The only noise was a low rumbling coming from behind us. The light from the sky was quickly fading, as if the sun was being choked of its light. I turned to look behind us, and saw the approaching monstrosity as it gained ground faster than we could run away.

It was a storm, more like a freak storm under the conditions it came. Out of the blue? Definitely. As we ran, I saw bolts of lighting flash to the ground and between the low hangings of clouds. Focusing back to what was ahead, I yelled to Cerb in between gasping breaths.

"Keep running, Cerb! If we can make it into the mountains, we'll be safe. We just have to hurry!" The demon-dog barked to agree.

I could feel the wind of the storm beginning to whip at my back. I could have sworn I felt a few raindrops had hit the back of my head. The storm wasn't moving that fast, was it? It was at least several miles away just moments ago! Regardless, Cerb and I were now upon the base of the mountains.

The craggy faces were quite intimidating. Climbing was out of the question. But I knew that there was a path somewhere nearby. Just where was it?

Cerb barked a warning to me. The storm clouds were now passing overhead and already I could feel the rain pick up into a slight drizzle. I looked at my Houndour. The water hit his skin with a sizzle and a puff of smoke. His face was contorted in a grimace as he tried to fight the stinging that his weakness brought him. I felt terrible for him. We had left his pokeball at home in Fallarbor, for reasons I cannot even remember now.

"Come on Cerb, this way!" I ordered, pointing to the right, where I was sure that the path was located. He didn't wait to be told twice, and the two of us ran as fast as we could. A bolt of lighting lit the sky for only a second, making it seem brighter than even daylight for a moment. The rain picked up even more when a resounding thunder followed.

It must have been a few minutes, but we were fortunate to come upon the sloping trail that led into the mountain region. Fate being naturally cruel, the path was pure mud at the moment, something I failed to make note of when I first remembered the trail. Rainwater was sloshing down the incline, making the normally dirt and sand pathway a pure nightmare of slippery, thick mud that would be easy to get stuck in.

"Don't worry about it Cerb, just keep moving." I advised against better judgment. Cerb whimpered. He wasn't even sure that this was the best plan of action. But I as looked at his pained expression and his now sopping wet fur coat, I knew it was the only way. I was drenched as well, but at least rain didn't hurt me.

Taking the initiative, I took a few tentative steps up the path. My feet sank, but I was able to keep going, even though I slipped every few steps up. At the first leveled-out area, I turned back and motioned for Cerb to hurry. The Houndoor realized that this was the only way we could really go and reluctantly tried scampering up. His paws scurried as fast as they could on the slick mud, but he was only moving so far. Soon enough he lost all momentum and slid to the entrance, his body now covered in mud.

"Cerb! Hang on buddy, I'll get you!" I cried, sliding down the mud to reach him. Stooping down, I pulled out a rain poncho out of my pack. "This'll do enough for now. If only I had planned for this kind of a thing!" I berated myself for being so foolish to fail to prepare for freak incidents. I carefully picked up the medium-sized dog and began the trek up once more.

Carrying him did not make the task any easier. In fact, coupled with the increasing loss of friction on the path it only made moving a lot harder, but I managed.

About halfway up, the narrow mud walkway began to give way to much more solid footing on bits of gravel. The rain still hampered my progress, but at least I could move with a bit more ease.

"Not much longer, Cerb," I said, trying to console my panicking Houndour. I felt terrible that he was being put through this, but at least he had my poncho to keep mostly out of the rain. "We can make it. We've got nothing but smooth sailing until we get into the mountain pass. And then, with all of the caves there, we can stop for the night and wait out the rest of the storm." If only things could have worked out like I had said.

Arceus had other plans in mind. Before I realized what was happening, a bolt of lighting struck the rock several feet above us. Large chunks of rock fell, and while most harmlessly rolled off the side, several struck myself and Cerb. One happened to nail me on the back of the head, rendering me immediately unconscious. Cerb fell from my limp arms and back down the mountain face only to be met with a face full of dirt and sand.

It must have been the next day when I awoke, because it was daylight once again and the storm had subsided. I sat up and began to rub a sore spot on my head, trying desperately to recall the previous day's events and figure out where Cerb went. Looking around me, I saw the the way back down was blocked off by multiple boulders that were randomly scattered along the trail. With a sudden realization, I looked over the edge of the path and scanned all around for any sign of my Houdour. A horrible feeling of guilt and loss filled me, and I cried out in anguish.

"Cerb! If you're out there, just hang on! I'll get help, I'll come back and get you!" I was disheartened when I didn't hear any barking to acknowledge that he heard me. Slight feelings of depression began to hit me, but I pushed them aside as I focused on getting help as soon as possible.

"I promise you, Cerb, I'll be back soon." I whispered. Standing up, I started up once again. It wasn't long at all before I reached the entrance to the mountains, and I continued on my way.

The memory skipped forward again, this time putting it around a day later. I was in some cabin...I couldn't recall if it belonged to someone I knew or not. Several other people were nearby, each of them looking travel weary and damp. And elderly woman was tending to someone who had apparently injured themselves outside. I was warm, and I realized that I had been laid by a fireplace. My clothes were mostly dry at this point it seemed.

With a sinking feeling, I ran to a window and watched for the weather. I was greeted with darkness and the soft patter of raindrops on the window. Every once in a while a bolt of lightning would strike, providing a momentary view of the outside world.

With a sigh of defeat, I dropped my head against the glass. Someone put their hand on my shoulder. Looking back, the old woman, whom I could assume owned this cottage, was smiling knowingly at me.

"You cannot go out there in this storm," she told me. "You are lucky you got here when you did. I was about ready to barricade the doors to prevent debris from tearing down the door. But you got here, thank goodness." I turned away as I began to feel guilty. How could I have just gone on without Cerb? Even with the rocks blocking part of the way, I should have gone back down to get him and tried to find another way through.

The old woman continued to stare at me in silence. "You seemed to be off in your own world when you came, much like you are now. Tell me, what happened out there?"

I shook my head, fighting back emotions. Cerb was my Pokemon, my best friend for years. And I had left him to die in the rain. If the water didn't kill him, some Cacturne would have surely picked him off by now.

"I...I lost my Pokemon. My Houndour, Cerb," I managed to croak out. The aging woman nodded.

"I understand completely. I'll tell you what; this storm will likely end by tomorrow. What I suggest is you get some more sleep tonight. You seemed to have been on a long journey, and the cold winds and rain easily sap your energy. But tomorrow, when the storm passes, you may go out and search for your Houndour. I cannot guarantee that he will still be around, if he was even alive." My head dropped at the depressing possibility.

"However, there is always a chance that your Pokemon is still around. You never know until you look." With a nod, the lady walked off to check up on the other trainers and people who had been caught in the storm. Taking her words to heart, I went back and laid down once more to sleep.

* * *

"...Tide....Wake...please!"

I had been hearing muffled voices that didn't seem part of reality...or was I dreaming? Confused, I rolled onto my back.

"Get...up!...Time...eat...stop...the nightmares..."

I groaned at the annoying outside voice. It was like one of those buzzing noises you sometimes hear, it just never goes away once you notice it. Swatting empty air, I tried to get the distraction to go away.

"Cerb...I'm so sorry. Come back, Cerb. Cerb!" I cried out to the darkness around me.

I heard shuffling behind me. "Sorry Tide, but this is for your own good." Before my mind could piece together the meaning of this, I felt a blow to the side of my shell, knocking me into the wall. I woke up at this point, the jolting pain of my head striking the wall being more than enough to knock me out of my dreams.

I heard Phloe sigh in relief. "Finally. I was seriously becoming worried when you began to whimper. And then you start calling out the name 'Cerb.' What was that about?"

Taking in what Phloe said little by little, my mind began to put together my dream. As I became more and more awake, my brain made more connections. What I came up with in the end disturbed and shocked me.

"What is it?" Phloe asked. I could tell she wanted to know, but she was still wary about where my mind was last night.

I clutched my head as the correlation between my dream and everything else became very clear to me. I couldn't believe I had not recognized everything before. The signs were there...but I never noticed.

"Phloe..." I began with a hint of uncertainty in my voice. "I've figured out why Styx hates me."

If my Treecko partner had not been paying particular attention to what I was coming to before, she certainly was now.

"What? You do?"

I could feel a sick feeling rising in my stomach. I swallowed, trying to keep it down. "Yep. And along with that, I've come to figure out a few other pieces to the puzzle that is me and my life. Exhibit A would be, a powerful part of my past. Or I should say, of the past Styx and I shared."

* * *

Two hulking Pokemon stood alone in meeting. Under normal circumstances, they could hardly stand the other. But these were not normal circumstances.

"Arceus has finally lost it," growled the quadruped, Dialga. "He had let his experiment run rampant for far too long. Now, I will have patience still, but not for much longer. Deoxys is a threat necessary to be exterminated."

Dialga's companion, the bipedal deity of space known as Palkia, grunted a reply. "I still cannot believe I allowed myself to be a part of his plans. Such a fool I was. To allow those meteors to cause as much havoc as they have. To turn that human into a Pokemon. And to tie the entire package together, consent to let Arceus create that mutant."

"How he believes 'Deoxys' can ever become one of us...I shall never understand that."

"And the others are so blind to it! Just look at them! They have no ability to think for themselves, only to watch as the supreme deity asserts his dominion over everything and go about as he pleases. Look where it leads! Chaos! I just want to go down right now and stop that Deoxys myself before he does any more damage!"

"Again, Palkia, have patience like myself. While Deoxys has been a pest to the world, he has not down anything truly punishable yet. He has killed, but for what he's done we would have to annihilate many of the living Pokemon on the planet to justify the action. So have faith and wait. Once he's done worse, then we go above Arceus' command. That is when we end this sickening experiment."

"Even if the cost is the human?"

Dialga sighed. "Yes, even if the human is killed. It does not matter. Many futures already show that happening. Others have the boy survive. How fate shall control his destiny...we shall find out soon enough..."

* * *

**I had been wanting to delve more into Tide's past, and this chapter gave me plenty of an excuse to do so. I hope to add a few more pieces to his past as time goes on, but I'm not sure when.  
So a few bombs were dropped on this story. Tide and Styx's relations, plotting Legendaries, and now Deoxys has begun the long trek to Treasure Town. Could it get any worse? Oh yeah, you all can count on that much.**


	13. Encounters

**Been a while, but here's the chapter. This seemed to take longer to write, but that's probably because I wrote this in a ton of short intervals over the past week or so. Nonetheless, it's finally here.**

**I'm hoping to get back on a regular schedule, but that's iffy. I still plan to finish this by the end of summer, but with another story and my parents pressuring me to do nonstop scholarships, it's tough to get this done. But I will work hard at it, I can guarantee you guys that.**

**And I would like to thank everyone for putting up with my absence for so long. Especially the reviewers, I can't thank you guys enough for sticking with me thus far with this story. You guys are the reason I am determined to finish this story. Thanks a bunch!**

Chapter 11: Encounters

"So Cerb...I mean Styx...he used to be with you when you were human?"

I had spent the better part of the last half hour recounting my dream in detail to Phloe. It was obvious she was as shocked as I was. She rubbed the top of her head, trying desperately to make sense of it all.

"I still can't believe it. All this time, he hated you for the past. For a misunderstanding, too! A storm that bad that separated you two...This is just a lot to take in."

"You're telling me. I'm still having trouble believing it myself." Phloe stood up and walked to the door.

"Let's just go and eat. But is there anything else that you could tell me?" I was confused with Phloe's request.

"Why? It's not like there was much else that was important than what I remembered."

"I'm curious. I want to help you out, Tide, but I'm also interested about your past. Did you have any other pokemon with you?"

"What? No! I just had Styx with me, that was it. Come on Phloe, lay of the subject for a bit." The Treecko stared innocently at me.

"I'm just asking."

"You're prying."

"No I'm not."

I decided that it wasn't worth getting into a petty argument like this, so I just sighed and got up. However, Phloe was persistent.

"Come on, Tide. Tell me, can't you see I'm interested?"

"And I would prefer to forget things past."

"And never apologize to Styx for your past?" I froze halfway out the door. Phloe had a point. I should make amends with Styx. He had been hurt by my wrongdoing, even when it was next to impossible for me to save him in the first place. So why shouldn't I go to him...

"Earth to Tide? You in there?" Phloe was next to my now, waving a hand in front of my face. I blinked and shook my head to clear out the thoughts.

"Alright Phloe, I'll apologize to Styx. Let's go get some breakfast, and I will speak with him in the dining hall."

* * *

I never did apologize to Styx at breakfast. Phloe and I entered the dining hall, which was chaotic as usual, and made our way to the usual spot with Team Sting. I ate little and got up to find Team Hades. Scanning across the room, I managed to spot Styx sitting with his teammates. He had been speaking to Omen about something before he caught me staring at him.

In that moment, I regretted even beginning to try. His eyes narrowed and pierced me liked daggers, and a vicious sneer formed on his face. I remained standing, refusing to make any further move to Team Hades. Phloe had noticed my pause and started to question me.

"Tide? Are you okay?"

Hatred seemed to radiate off of Styx from the other side of the room. Omen and Demi seemed to pay no mind to his sudden change of disposition, and instead continued to their own business. I feared for my life in that time, feared that Styx would enact revenge for all those years ago and tear me apart.

Mustering what control I could, I turned away from Styx's death glare, and began to slowly remove my presence from the room. Quicker and quicker I moved until I was practically running to get out. The image of Styx, no Cerb, the Houndour, alone and wet at the base of the cliff, was burned into my head. The pain of leaving him alone ate at me, and the guilt of never finding him made it worse. I knew his rage was justified, and if he were to ever kill me, it would feel justified. Now if only I could fix this issue.

"Hey Tide, what was that back there?" Phloe's voice once again interrupted my thoughts and returned me to reality. I was by the ladder to the upper levels and Phloe was nearby, looking worriedly at me.

"You just froze up back there without even doing anything. What happened?" I sighed, the guilt of my memories leaving me distressed.

"The thought of what happened back then, with Styx and I...it just hurts. And to see his hatred to this extent...he is right. I'm evil and he has every right to kill me." Phloe's eyes softened and she shook her head.

"From what I've seen, you sure seem the opposite of evil. You helped save me and Team Fulmine back when we had the mission to capture the Hit 'Em Brothers. In fact, you saved my life before you even knew who I was." I turned away out of embarrassment.

"It was common courtesy. You had protected me against Styx in the first place."

"But you finished the battle before you even knew how to fight, and got me to a nurse. A lot of others would have turned away and left me for dead, or just left after they made sure I was in good hands. You didn't. You stayed to make sure I was alright the entire time. You became my friend and partner on this team. There's nothing evil about you."

I was burning with embarrassment at this point. Yes, I had done so much to help Phloe out, and in one case Team Fulmine. But that didn't right the wrongs I have made.

"In any case," I said, "That does not make up for the past. I left Styx behind."

"But you even said that the woman had prevented you from returning during the storm. There really was nothing you could have done."

"But I should I done something!" I barked. "There had to have been something. Disobey the woman and go into the storm, never have trusted Styx to climb the cliff in the rain by himself, something!"

I put my face into my hands in an act of exasperation. I really had no clue what was right and what was wrong. I felt the villain, but what Phloe had told me said otherwise. Just where was reason?

"Tide, you need to get a grip on yourself," Phloe's kind demeanor had disappeared in an instant. "You are one of the most good-hearted pokémon I have met and are far from being bad. The only bad comes from when you question your good like this. Just pull yourself together. And if you won't, I will do it for you. Regardless, you need to keep moving. I don't care what you do, but we need to get a mission for the day. I'm going up to the mission board, so meet me up there when you come to terms."

Phloe's words struck me; she was right that I needed to check myself. I was overreacting, and there was nothing that I had truly done wrong. The Treecko scampered up the ladder, leaving me to come to terms with myself. I knew that she was right, and I needed to take care of things. I would apologize to Styx. Not at the moment, but I would soon.

When I pulled myself to the next floor, I could not see Phloe anywhere. There were a few pokémon chatting and walking around, but my partner was no where to be seen.

"Uh...Phloe? Are you around here?" I called aloud to her. I began to walk around the room as I waited until she came by, but after a minute I realized that such was not going to happen.

"Tide!" I heard a hushed call to me, and someone dropped from the ceiling behind me. "Don't let him see me."

I turned my head as far as I could to see Phloe crouched behind me, she just barely peeking over my shoulder at the Outlaw Board. She glanced at me before continuing to stare at a figure that floated near the board.

"Don't let him notice me, Tide. I have a bad feeling about him." I gave Phloe a look and glanced at the being which she was staring at. It was a small, frail pokémon that was colored a mustard yellow and grey. Most interesting of all was that it had its back covered by a small, black cape. I could not quite tell what it was until it rotated to face Phloe and I. My partner shied away behind me, and the pokémon, a Shedinja, slowly approached us.

"Can I...help you?" He spoke in a monotone that had the slightest hint of contempt. I was about to respond until Phloe walked out from behind me and looked the bug pokémon in the eyes.

"Have we met before?" She asked as bluntly as possible, causing me to even flinch at the tone of voice. The Shedinja narrowed his eyes at her, and a low hum could be heard from him.

"...No."

Phloe did not seem satisfied with that answer, but she did not have another chance to speak with him. He turned around and hovered up the ladder, his dark cape softly fluttering behind him.

"What was that about?" I asked Phloe. She turned to face me, her eyes shining in hatred.

"Nothing. Nothing important."

"Because being afraid and then staring someone down with deathly intent is nothing." I mumbled as Phloe made her way to the Job Board. I followed her, dissatisfied with her answer but unwilling to press further on the matter. At the board we began to look for a mission until a certain parrot's squawks interrupted us from above.

"Team Impact! Good morning to you both!" cried out Chatot from his perch on the board. We both gave half-hearted "good-mornings" in reply to the bird pokémon.

"Hm?" he cocked his head to the side. "Is there a problem this morning?"

"Not at all," I replied, trying to cover the issues our team had encountered this morning. "We're just tired. Not much happened, we are both still trying wake up."

Chatot nodded in agreement to the response. He swooped from his perch and landed on my head.

"Well, the Guildmaster and I have received news of a special mission near Mt. Horn to help a small village clean up a meteorite problem. We just got the message from them since the roads and communications are finally opening up completely for the first time since that meteor storm a while back. Nonetheless, we wanted to know if your team wanted to undertake this. It would be relatively simple, and should only take a matter of four or five days including travel."

"I'm okay with it," Phloe said before I could even ask. "It would be a nice change of pace from some of the other missions we have done so far." Having answered my question, I nodded to Chatot.

"Sure, it looks like we'll take it."

"That's excellent!" Chatot cheered. "Now, you should be able to find Mt. Horn without much trouble and...oh, before I forget. RAIGA! Get out here!"

In that instant, I was not sure whether I should be happy or disappointed to know that the hyper Elekid was joining us on the mission. He dropped from the entrance of the guild on his head, earning himself a face full of dirt.

"Raiga, reporting for duty." he said, barely managed to lift his face out of the ground to speak.

"Get up, Raiga, we have no time to fool around," Chatot scolded the Elekid. "You're assigned a mission with Team Impact since your teammate has taken leave."

"Nero's gone?" I asked incredulously. The Shinx was usually around, I could not imagine why he'd be gone now. "Where did he go?" Chatot flew back to his perch on top of the board. Putting a wing to his beak in thought, he went over the details in his head to be certain.

"I believe he had said something about visiting family in Amp Plains..."

* * *

"Note to self: never go on long trips from the Guild, even back home, without Raiga backing me up."

Nero was currently locked in battle with a small Pichu girl who was doing her best to defeat the clearly stronger Shinx. She rushed him with an Iron Tail attack that he easily side-stepped, causing her to trip over herself and crash into the ground. As she tried to pick herself up after the miss, Nero's fur began to crackle with the electricity he had been storing for a time. Just at the Pichu stood back up, she saw Nero running, too late for her to dodge, with a Spark attack.

"Wait! Just hold on a minute, Shinx! I think that we can-" Nero rammed into her with enough electricity to knock her out for the time being. He shook off the hit and looked at her unconscious body.

"You attacked first." he said simply, and he continued on his way to see his father.

* * *

"So are we all ready to get going?" I asked Phloe and Raiga. I had my team's treasure bag, and Raiga would have had his if he hadn't lost it. How someone loses a thing like that is beyond me. We were outside the main entrance of the guild, each of us prepared to go.

"I'm ready, you're ready, we're all ready! Let's go!" Raiga left Phloe and I little time to respond to his outburst before he was already running down the steps to get the journey started. We sighed and followed his lead, quickly chasing after the speedy Elekid before we could lose sight of him.

"Why does he act like this?" Phloe asked me as we ran to catch up. I shrugged at the question.

"I don't know, I think the electricity fried his brain. That would be the most likely explanation."

* * *

"Mount Horn! I see Mount Horn!" Raiga's shouts were annoying me to the point that I flinched each time he spoke. Perhaps worse was that we were standing in front of Mount Horn before he even began yelling.

"Raiga. Raiga please...stop talking," I pleaded with the Elekid. He wouldn't listen to me, too caught up in his own little world. The worst part was that in the day and a half it took to get here, Raiga was almost nonstop talk. Zero-tolerance of it came only minutes into the journey.

"If you don't stop I will resort to desperate measures." My warning went unheeded by him. I sighed and gave Phloe an "I tried" look. Turning back to the yammering Elekid, I opened my mouth and felt chilling energy form in my gaping maw. Seconds later I fired a small Ice Beam at Raiga's face, instantly freezing it over and stopping him in his tracks. Phloe did not seem pleased with my actions.

"Was that really necessary?" I grabbed Raiga by his feet and started to drag him to the cave entrance of the Mount Horn mystery dungeon.

"Yes. It was perfectly necessary, and perfectly right for me to do it. Now let's go, I can only imagine how long this will last until Raiga somehow figures out a way to break free of the ice."

* * *

**BF 1**

"Okay, so where was the exit to this village?" Phloe pulled out a note Chatot gave us containing the information on our mission.

"There's an opening in the dungeon on the second floor. So we don't have to stay in the mountain for too long." She put the note back into the treasure bag while I stopped to take a break from dragging Raiga. I sat next to the his frozen head and Phloe joined me.

"Need a break?"she asked me.

"Just for a moment," I took a deep breath and looked at Raiga. His face had the same goofy grin plastered on as always. Phloe took a look at him and laughed.

"While I am not in support of you freezing him, I have to admit that the results are funny." An amusing thought crossed my mind and I burst into a fit of giggles.

"It would be hilarious if that expression was permanently on him after this," I mused. "I don't think that he would mind it either."

"Eventually he'd snap." Phloe told me. I grinned and stood back up, stretched and grabbed one of Raiga's feet.

"The only bad part of freezing him is that I now have to drag him. But it's worth it."

The three of us went on our way through the dungeon in search of the stairway. It was only through the first corridor that we came upon a pair of Shroomish, neither of which appeared happy to see us. One of them charged at me with a Headbutt attack and I dropped Raiga to dodge it.

The other one took advantage of my unpreparedness and came at me with another Headbutt. The attack connected and I was sent sprawling across the ground. Pushing myself up off the ground I saw Phloe smack the other Shroomish with a Pound attack. The little mushroom pokémon flew across the cave and impacted the rocky ground with a thud. It got up and waddled back to her, blasting several seed pods from the pore on the top of its head. Phloe moved agilely out of the way of the Leech Seed attack and sprang forward with her own Quick Attack at the Shroomish, knocking it further back and out of the way of the battle.

In this time I had gotten back up and used a Tackle on the annoying pokémon. It toppled over itself but still managed to stay on its feet. The Shroomish didn't even know what hit it before I had followed up with an Ice Beam to finish the job. Locked in a block of ice, the pokémon was utterly defeated.

"You alright, Phloe?" I asked my partner. She nodded and checked to make sure Raiga was okay. Sure enough, the Elekid was in the same spot as I had left him and thankfully, still frozen.

"Let's get out of here then." I said as I picked up Raiga for what would hopefully be the last time and walked on through the dungeon. It was our luck that the next room contained the stairs and nothing more. Phloe ran ahead and made her way through. I pulled up the rear and dragged Raiga along, bumping his head along the way and leaving several cracks in the ice. Peace was not going to last much longer at this rate.

**BF 2**

The next floor was the same brown and gray landscape as the last, unsurprisingly. What was surprising was that what could only be assumed as our exit was in the same room.

"Do you really think that's it?" Phloe asked me when I fully arrived at the top with Raiga. I looked halfheartedly around the mountain interior for any signs of another exit. Besides the typical halls to other parts of the mystery dungeon, there was nothing more. Then again, I wasn't trying. If there was an opening out of this place, I was willing to go. I would have much rather saved energy from fighting to just taking care of the job.

"I don't really care if that's the correct exit or not, I'm going," I said. "And before you reason with me, I'm set on my decision. If this isn't it, oh well. How hard could it be to find a village outside of the mountain?"

"You have no idea how hard it might be. Why take the chance?"

"Why not?"

"You'll be exhausted before the true assignment begins."

"...Touché. Nonetheless, I'm going." I said finally, hefting up Raiga and making a dash towards the exit. Phloe groaned at my stubbornness and followed me, realizing full well that I would not be swayed from my decision. Thus, the three of us left Mount Horn and came upon an unbelievable sight...

* * *

**Not bad for the first time back, eh? Well, we got a few interesting things thrown in here, but now we're moving along in the story. Expect some exciting stuff next time, and from that point on the story will be going on some serious action and whatnot. Can't reveal what, but just expect some more visits to our old pal Deoxys quite soon!**


	14. Ambush

**Oh look, another chapter! What do you know, I managed to pull this sucker together fairly quickly with the extra time I've had these past few days. Being sick has only amplified that. So do enjoy this, I loved writing how things came together here. It gets intense as it goes on, but I hope to hear some feedback on how I did this, such as the pacing and whatnot. Also, I have an important Author's Note at the end, I encourage you to read it.**

**Lastly, I would like to thank you all again for continuing to read this story. I see some people have been reviewing (even though I can't personally thank them. Oh well.) But thanks again everyone for supporting this fanfic. It only gets better from here on out, I guarantee it.**

* * *

Chapter 11: Ambush

Upon exiting the mystery dungeon, Phloe and I were greeted with sunshine and a small village less than half a mile away. While I am sure the place would look stunning on a normal occasion, this was not a normal occasion. A small fraction of the buildings were ravaged by holes and burn marks, craters and impact zones were variously littered throughout, and chunks of meteorite, whether they be big or small, were all around.

The village seemed to be busily at work, several groups of pokémon working diligently to break apart the larger fragments, but it was apparent that they were too weak to do it. Meanwhile, the rest of the citizens seemed to be going about their days as they would normally, walking and getting supplies. Some of the younger pokémon were playing on one of the largest chunks that the rest of the town had given up on.

"Best we get moving," Phloe advised. "It looks like they've been working at this for quite some time. I just hope we can do the job." I could tell she was unsure about how this mission would turn out, but I was confident we would get it done.

"You go on down and introduce us," I told her. I dropped Raiga and looked at his frozen head. "I'll get this guy up and at it. It shouldn't take me too long."

"Alright, you do that." Phloe said, and without any hesitation she made her way down the rocky path from Mt. Horn to the village below. I could see some of the inhabitants look as Phloe continued down, but most did not pay her any mind. In the meantime I turned my attention to Raiga. His face was still frozen in the goofy grin he had before, not that I expected that to have changed at all. Sighing, I started to chip away at the ice encapsulating him with my fists. It came away in small pieces, but I knew it would not take long to free the hyper Elekid from his prison. With that thought, I knew it was going to be a long day.

"Why did Nero just have to be going somewhere? Why couldn't he have stayed and helped us out, and kept Raiga under control?" I moaned.

* * *

"Where is that Shinx? Come on, it's not like it would be hard to find a Shinx in Amp Plains," a female Pichu muttered her annoyances to herself. A moment later she realized the foolishness of her statement.

"On second thought, maybe this will be more difficult than I thought. But I refuse to give up!" she shouted, causing a small flock of Pidgey to flutter away from the trees in surprise.

"Give up what?" A Luxio coolly waltzed from beneath the brush and trees, his expression a mixture of amusement and killing intent. The Pichu's confidence dropped at the sight of the Luxio, but she fought off the fear and returned the stare. The Luxio slowly walked in a circle around the Pichu, never once letting her leave his eyes.

"You seem to be far from your home, little Pichu," the Luxio said at last. "And speaking of homes, have you ever heard of how it is rude to trespass on the property of others?" The Pichu gulped and shook her head rapidly.

The Luxio smirked and laughed to himself. He stopped walked and looked at his paws, watching his claws retract and extend just to add to the effect of his intimidation. The Pichu was clearly afraid and he knew it, but she wouldn't let him visibly see that weakness in her.

"Well, I'll tell you what they say. They say that you die!" He pounced suddenly with claws extended and electricity surging. The Pichu put up a Protect to defend herself, and the Luxio bounced off with minor injuries to himself. Snarling, he turned to her again and used a Thundershock to stun her. The Pichu saw it coming and ran out of the way, retaliating with her own Thunder. The attack hit the Luxio, who was taken aback at the raw power the Pichu had.

"Looks like I've underestimated you," he said with a devilish grin. "I believe that I'll have to take things up a notch." His fur began to stand on its end and the Pichu began to get a feeling of deja vu.

'Just like the fight with the Shinx earlier,' she thought with a feeling of dread creeping on her. The Luxio darted at her in a fashion much like Nero had done before. The Pichu tried to jump out of the way of the Spark attack, but her opponent changed directions to allow his attack to connect. With a cry of anguish, she fell.

'I guess this is the end of it all.' she sniffed as the Luxio began powering up for a final blow. Squeezing her eyes shut, she took her fate with what dignity she had.

* * *

"Wow it's cold, are you cold too?" Raiga was well only moments after I had freed him from his icy prison. Already I felt that I missed the silence I had created.

"No. It's just you, Raiga," I reassured him. "We may be up in the mountains, but it's quite decent for the area. You're just crazy, as usual." I left him and went after Phloe into the village. Raiga stood alone for a minute thinking upon his insanity.

"...Naw, perfectly normal," he told himself and promptly ran to rejoin Phloe and I.

In town, the hustle and bustle seemed even more chaotic up close. I could tell from just the tense air that the meteors had seriously messed with the lives of the pokémon here. Raiga had calmed, sensing the lack of tolerance for silliness in the town. The three of us walked along and barely stayed out of the way of the others that came barreling through, far too busy to pay attention to the world around them. Phloe almost made a comment about the rudeness of them, but restrained herself with the thought that someone might just hear her.

"Are you three the Exploration Team that we called for?" a Tyrogue had approached us with a finger pointed in my face.

"I...er, yes," I stuttered, leaning back in surprise of the Tyrogue's abrupt appearance and lack of appreciation for my comfort zone. He pulled his arm back and crossed it with his other, nodding with a smug expression.

"Took you long enough," he said. "I don't know how much longer we can last with these things around, and with those two still around..." He trailed off at that point, leaving us feeling like we were missing rather vital information. The Tyrogue shook off his thoughts and faced us again.

"Ahem, never mind what I was saying. I cannot remember if our message informed you of the details of this mission, so I shall tell you, or reiterate if you have heard already. As you can see, our town was particularly ravaged by the meteors from a while back. We haven't quite returned things to normal, but we did have clean up running smoothly for a time. However, for the past few days we've encountered problems with...uh, with the workers. Yes, the workers have been growing increasingly, uh, fatigued." Tyrogue constantly flitted his eyes to each side to look into the distance, as if something was watching him.

"So you just need us to finish the job," Phloe asked. "and that's all?"

"Yep, that's it. We'll pay you when you've finished. Good luck now!" He waved us off and continued on his merry way to whatever he was doing before.

"Let's get started then?" I asked Phloe and Raiga. I didn't even need to wait for a response from the latter, as he suddenly lost all control and ran off, Thunderpunching the first meteor fragment he could find. Phloe shrugged and told me to ignore him.

"Let him get his part done, we'll go ahead and work on ours," she suggested. "I also have an idea. We could start with the smallest pieces and remove them, whether they can simply be thrown out of the village boundaries or just destroyed. After those are gone we could move onto the largest pieces and work as a team to destroy those ones."

"Great idea, I'll work over at the south end," I pointed over to where a sizable amount of craters could be seen, most looking to contain smaller rocks.

"Then I will get over here," Phloe motioned behind her. "And Raiga will just take care of...what he will take care of." We looked at the Elekid, who was still jittery as ever and plowing through meteor after meteor with multitudes of Thunderpunches.

* * *

Hours later, after what had felt like an endless series of hefting rocks out of the town, I was finished with my area. Raiga had been done with the smaller pieces of his area long before, and Phloe had completed hers at least twenty minutes before I did. We met back up and began to work together on annihilating the largest meteorites in the area. I could tell the job would not be easy, especially since at least half of them were the size of the guild.

"We'll just attack in conjunction," Phloe reasoned with us. "All three of us can just attack at the same moment and that could generate enough force to break these apart."

"Sounds good enough to me, let's go!" Raiga chattered and he excitedly ran to the nearest chunk. By this time we had gathered an audience of the locals who had been enjoying our work to clear out their town for them. I could tell that they would love what was coming.

"Get ready you two," Phloe said, the three of us all on different sides of the meteorite. "On my mark...three...two...one!" She jumped up and swung her tail with a Pound attack at the rock while Raiga pulled back with a Thunderpunch and I shot a Water Gun, an attack I had only recently began to use correctly.

The force of all three attacks shook the meteor to its core, and massive cracks split across its sides. With a rumble, it crumbled apart into dust and gravel, the former meteor actually filling in the crater it had created. Huffing, Phloe gave Raiga and I a thumbs up.

"That wasn't terrible, was it guys?" The "audience" we had going went nuts, amazed at the swiftness at which the rock was destroyed. I couldn't help but think why they couldn't have done it themselves. Many of them looked like strong pokémon, and as I came to realize, none of them looked at all exhausted as Tyrogue had claimed. Something wasn't sitting well with me about that.

"Come on. Come on. Come on!" Raiga shouted his impatience to us. "No time for standing around, let's do this!" He ran to the next rock and began to kick it while he waited for us to come. Not one to want to keep him waiting, I rolled my eyes at his antics and made my way over to the next one.

"Nero, just how do you do it?" I chuckled to myself. As much I as I found Raiga to be a pain in the neck, he was equally enjoyable and a powerful ally. Walking over to him, I couldn't help but notice a cloud of dust in the horizon that grew unprecedentedly. With horror I realized too late that we were getting some unexpected company. In a moment's notice the meteorite blew apart and Raiga was thrown back by a massive, tank-like pokémon that plowed through him and the rock like paperweights. On top of it was a smaller, more lithe pokémon that looked oddly human, but with a large head and small body with blue limbs.

"Ah, crud."

* * *

When the Pichu thought she was going to die, she didn't. She opened her eyes, confused by the change of events, and was both shocked and delighted to see the Shinx that she was looking for, Nero. He was currently fighting tooth and claw with the Luxio, the larger pokémon actually seeming to be challenged by the power the Shinx held. The Pichu looked around and spotted an Oran Berry next to her. Taking it as a gift from the Shinx, she ate it and almost instantaneously felt relieved of her pain.

"You're up," the Shinx noted while using another Spark against his opponent. "In that case, please do help."

The Pichu stared, taken in awe by the bravery of the Shinx and how valiantly he fought. And for her, when she had picked a fight with him before. Ready to return the favor of saving her life, she sprang to her feet and joined in the scuffle once again. She caught the Luxio's attention and created tens of doppelgangers of herself using Double Team. The Luxio was caught off guard with this evasive maneuver, and thus tried to blindly bite his way through the illusion. The Pichu smirked and let her tail glow a white light, before the real her ambushed the Luxio from behind, cracking his spine with a solid Iron Tail attack.

Gagging with pain, the Luxio twisted around in a futile attempt to take revenge on the little Pichu. Her attack had left him stunned and severely in pain, as well as greatly slowing him down. Nero took this advantage and rammed him in the side with a Tackle, further damaging the Luxio. Stubbornly, he would not back down, even when it was apparent he was losing the fight and would very likely die. Nero sensed this and called out to the Pichu.

"Don't kill him," he warned. "Knock him out, but don't kill him."

The Pichu did not understand why she should not, but she accepted the Shinx's orders, preferring to not disrespect him after he had saved her life. The Luxio spat and glared venomously at the Pichu. Sucking up all the pain he felt, he ran at her with one final Spark, determined to at least take out one of them. At the last possible second, the Pichu pulled up a Protect to guard herself, rendering the Luxio's attack useless. The Luxio slammed into the shield with a crack, signifying he had broken several ribs. With a weakened growl, he fell to the ground, completely unconscious.

Nero walked to the Pichu, surveying the damage laid to the Luxio. He took a look at the Pichu girl, making sure she was okay after the battle. Satisfied with what he saw, he turned to leave. The Pichu almost said something, but after he was ten feet away the Shinx called back to her.

"Are you coming?" he asked. The Pichu stepped back, and pointed to herself hesitantly. Nero nodded and motioned with his head for her to come next to him. She cautiously walked to him, unsure if perhaps he might even commit revenge upon her for earlier, however unfounded such an idea was. She kept her head dropped as she approached Nero, both out of remorse and fear.

"S-sorry about earlier," she said. "I just wanted a good fight, that was all. I should have known better. And...thanks for saving me here." Nero had been staring at her surprised, but smiled softly at her apology and thanks.

"No problem. Now let's go."

"Go where?" Nero had been walking again but stopped and looked at her.

"To the guild. I'm taking you on as a new member of my Exploration Team. Can't leave a pokémon like you to die out here."

The little Pichu stared at him, and shook her head. Nero was confused by her response. He didn't expect someone to reject such an offer.

"Why not?" The Pichu looked around the wilderness around her.

"I've been around this area for all my life. To leave it now would be so strange. I don't think I could do it." Nero shook his head with a grin.

"Nonsense. I came from here. I made a team. Things are just fine. You can join me and my friend. Get out of daily threats of death."

The Pichu perked her ears up at this. To be given a chance...she could never wish for something better.

"Alright. I'll join you." she said. Nero smiled at her, knowing full well that she would make a valuable teammate, even if she was a little rough around the edges. He went back on his way out of Amp Plains, following the clear-cut path through the foliage.

"So what's your name? Mine's Nero." He called out to her. The Pichu stumbled after him, answering back in her hurry.

"It's Melody!"

* * *

Deoxys had been flying for days. He had gone out over the ocean for much of that time, remaining over the sparkling blue water to the west until he reasoned that there was no possible way for Treasure Town to be near. He had turned back and had already reached land two days before. His body was beginning to feel another new sensation for him, and that was fatigue. He was confused when he first felt the pains begin in his body, his limbs aching, as well as the rest of his body. It was not long before he reasoned what he needed to do, and that was to rest. Settling in the middle of the continent, he was greeted by several hostile Lucario.

"_Pathetic fools."_ Deoxys said as he flitted them all away with a Psychic before clearing an entire half-mile radius of inhabitants with the attack, pushing them all away and out of his sight.

"_Where are you...Tide?"_ he asked to no one in particular. "_I have been...searching...and have come up...empty. You cannot...be far. You must be near..."_

As if the fate was beckoning Deoxys, a vision overcame him. The memory of his landing sight, on the face of a large mountain. The Machop that had nearly been his first kill on the planet. Then his mind flashed to what was not memory. A vision of the opposite side of the mountain. A small village with meteor impact sites all around. And at the moment, a battle of two against three, and among those three, an odd Squirtle...

If Deoxys could grin, he would. All that was possible was for his eyes to narrow in what could only be described as sick pleasure.

"_There you are. And not far away. Not far away...at all..."_

* * *

I was currently locked in combat with a massive steel tank, one which I remembered as being a Lairon. Raiga was assisting me, but even the combined might of the two of us was little to stop the juggernaut from nearly wrecking us each time he charged.

Phloe on the other hand was taking it one-on-one against the Meditite partner of the Lairon. The two of them were locked in combat that took them agilely moving around the area and laying quick hits against each other while at the same time attempting to defend oneself.

The citizens of the village had already retreated into their houses, with Tyrogue having fled the town. Raiga and I were next to each other, backed up into a meteorite that prevented our escape from the Lairon. He snorted and began to paw the ground like a Tauros. With a shout he came at us with an Iron Head, his metal-plated skull now glinting in the sunlight like a mirror. Raiga and I yelled in fear and quickly darted out of the way at the last second, resulting in the Lairon pulverizing the meteor with his raw power. He walked out of the wreckage, sputtering from the dust and appearing clearly disoriented by the hit.

It quickly dawned on me just how to kill two Starly with one stone. Without even laying a finger on these two, we could wear them out while at the same time finish the job with the meteorites. It was a perfect plan, so long as they did not kill us first.

"Phloe, get him to kick the meteors!" I yelled to my partner, giving her the grand idea I had. Phloe landed upon one of the largest rocks and clung to its surface, waiting for her opponent to strike. In just seconds the Meditite had jumped above her, his fist glowing with unbelievable power.

"Get a taste of Dynamicpunch, girly!" The Meditite taunted to Phloe. She just smirked at him as he let gravity bring him down to her. Using a Quick Attack, Phloe managed to spring out of the way of the massive punch and into safety. Meanwhile the shocked Meditite struck the rock with his fist, obliterating it into dust instantaneously.

"No, darn it! Not what I wanted to happen!" He cried out in frustration over his failure. Before he could get back up into another attack Phloe sapped away a chunk of his health with an Absorb, angering him further.

"Do you not know how much that hurts?" His question went unanswered, only receiving an innocent shrug from Phloe. The Meditite cackled, and his fists burst into flames. "Then try this on for size!"

Phloe's eyes shrank at the sight. She knew as much as anyone did the power of fire over grass types. The Meditite dashed at her, fists pulled back and ready to nail their target. Phloe ran off as quickly as possible, using Quick Attack after Quick Attack to gain a boost away from her assailant, but it did not do much. At last she came to another meteor, and the Meditite was nearly upon her. She felt the heat of his punches approach, so she pulled off one of the most unexpected dodges anyone had seen. Scampering up the meteor, she flipped off of it once she gained enough altitude and jumped over the Meditite. He was so taken aback by the maneuver that he failed to stop his attack, not that he could at this point anyways. The Fire Punches made contact with the rock, sending shock waves throughout it and creating sizable cracks from the strike zone.

"Gah! My hands!" Meditite screamed in agony at the hit, his hands now bloody messes that could easily be seen as useless for the next few weeks. Phloe shared no sympathy for him, now finishing the job with an Absorb. His cries were cut short as his energy was drained from him, rendering him completely unconscious.

"You do not threaten me with fire, ever."

While Phloe had been having what I guess could be called luck, Raiga and I were in for the time of our lives. The Lairon was relentlessly chasing us, no matter how many boulders he plowed through. Raiga screaming like a Primeape wasn't much a relief, either. Nonetheless, it did not look as if the Lairon would call it quits any time soon.

"Raiga, stop screaming and listen for a moment!" I yelled at my temporary partner in an attempt to be heard over his hysterical rampage. "I need you to face that Lairon and kick him as hard as you can! I know you can do it!"

Raiga calmed when he heard me and promptly twisted around to face the pokémon. Just as Lairon was about to pummel him, Raiga surprised the steel pokémon with a Low Kick to the jaw, send him reeling back in pain, his face now cracked. Just before he could retaliate however, a blue aura surrounded him and he was picked up off of the ground.

"Eh? What is this?" He shouted. Phloe and I ran to Raiga and looked at him, but he shrugged.

"Don't look at me, I'm not the one using Psychic. Well, not now anyway." He put a hand to his mouth in a childish sort of "tee-hee."

"Then who is doing that?" I asked looking around for anyone in the town that might be helping us. Sadly, I found none. Well, none that I could see.

"_So you're Tide?" _A cold voice suddenly entered my head, filling me with fear. Startled, I began to frantically look around for the source of the voice.

"Did you guys hear that?" I asked my partners. Phloe and Raiga looked at me like I was crazy.

"Tide, no one has said anything." Phloe told me.

"No, someone just spoke to me. Didn't you hear them?"

"No..." Phloe looked at me cautiously, as if something were seriously wrong with me.

"_Don't bother, Tide. They cannot...hear me. I am selective in who I want to be...heard...from. Thus...is the power...of a psychic...pokémon."_

"Psychic? So are you a Kadabra or something?" The voice made a noise that sounded like a laugh. I wasn't sure if this thing knew how to laugh, though.

"_No...far superior. Far superior to anything you have faced. You want to know who I am? Behold...Deoxys."_

"Deoxys?" I asked aloud. Phloe and Raiga looked at me again.

"What'd you say Tide? 'Deoxys?' What's a Deoxys?" Phloe inquired. Her question was answered before any of us knew it. The Lairon was shot away, screaming into the horizon. The remaining meteors were lifted from the earth and floated eerily around the town with a blue haze. Moments later, what can only be described as a nightmare arrived.

There it was, the strangest pokémon I have ever seen. Blue and orange, with four spindly arms that moved around like noodles. His head was strangely shaped, and his legs came to points. In his chest was a strange crystal that seemed to course with energy that swirled within. Then there were his eyes. Those horrific, stoic eyes that stared directly into my soul. It locked its focus upon me and never left it. I was rooted to the spot, too afraid to move. The pokemon slowly began its decent towards me, its four arms now fusing together into two that looked strangely human.

"T-tide, I think its time to go now," Phloe stuttered as the pokémon grew ever so closer. I couldn't hear her for my attention was taken by the obviously malevolent entity before me. It reached one of its arms outwards to me, as if beckoning for me to come with it.

"Tide! Dude, snap out of it, we need to leave! I'm not one to bail on a mission, but I have to say that we. Must. Leave. Now!" Raiga was clearly spooked out of his mind, and already he was rummaging through the treasure bag that I had on my back, searching for the badge to teleport us back to the guild.

The strange pokémon's outstretched arm had once appeared friendly in a way. Now, it was downright deadly as an orb of pure energy formed in its outstretched palm, clearly forming a Hyper Beam. Raiga soon found the badge he was looking for.

"Got it! Phloe, grab Tide's hand! I got you both!" Phloe did as she was told, not thinking of anything but getting out of harm's way. Raiga pressed the button and in a flash of light, we vanished and were returned to the guild, just as the pokémon unleashed his full power in the Hyper Beam. It was angered by my disappearance, and screamed in mental anguish.

"_TIDE! I will find you again, and I shall complete my destiny! Do not try to escape from Fate any longer!"_

**Oh yeah stuff got crazy there, you know it. Close one on Tide's part, eh? Let's hope such an encounter does not happen again. But who am I saying, stuff can happen, amirite?**

**So the AN...yeah, a couple of things I want to say/ask. First of all, I would like to ask you guys on your opinions about a thought I was having. Should I continue the story after this chapter and get along to things within roughly ten chapters? Or should I take the time and to a random mission or two with the OC teams? I'm thinking the former, but I want to know what everyone else thinks. I say the former because it ties in with what I want to say next.**

**As some may be aware, I am in the process of prepping my next fanfic after this and my other present one (which I'm sure many of you could care less about). This next fic is a Pokemon reborn one, and is easily my most anticipated and well-planned work to date, and will likely be in my "career" of writing fanfics. Now, I had plans to launch it by summer's end, but with the pace I'm keeping it shall be difficult as it is to manage that. That's where this ties in with the first piece I had to say. The longer this fanfic takes, the longer I shall be stalled to putting out the next. Not that I care a lot, but my anticipation to write it is growing on me. So let me know what you think, and I shall adjust accordingly (not that it will alter events much anyways, just prolong things).  
As an added thing, I've been updating my profile with small previews of characters and whatnot from my upcoming fanfic, and I encourage you all to check it out, if you are interested in the Reborn story idea, of course.**


	15. Duplicitous

**I said I was back in my profile, I said I was back in my other story, and gosh darn it, I'm saying it again. I'm here for good and I'm writing like never before. I'm busy of course. Really busy, it's my senior year for crying out loud. I've got plenty to do, but that's what a free period my last semester is for, right? Nonetheless, I'm writing again. I've still got plenty of scholarships to do and running and stuff (I may be getting a job. Let's see how well they took my interview and application), but I'm writing fanfics again, and I feel wonderful, happier than I have in ages.  
Well, except when I was accepted to 5 out of the ten colleges I applied for. The other five I'll hear back from in another one or two months. Wish me luck, cause I still need a lot of money to even go to these places. Take my word for it kiddies, get cracking on that scholarship stuff way early in the game, like at the end of your sophmore year.**

**Enough preaching from me, you came to read some fanfiction. And not just any, but some awesome Mystery Dungeon: Starstruck! Let me tell you, this was so much fun to write. I feel like I've gotten a ton better in my writing all of a sudden and it just feels right to do this. So let me stop talking and let you guys read. My continued readers, this chapter is for you all!**

**P.S. There's a 5th gen mention with two Pokemon...sorry guys, it just came together like that, I couldn't help it when it happened. But don't worry, it's just two names!**

* * *

Chapter 14: Duplicitous

Deoxys was enraged. No, he was beyond furious. Destiny slipped away between his fingers in a flash of light. Tide was to be his salvation, the only way he could end the nightmare he suffered. He hadn't moved since Tide and his friends escaped. Their escape was clearly not what he expected. Deoxys had believed the job would be quick and easy once Tide was located. But now it just made things that much harder.

'For all I know...Tide will be cautious. He won't be as willing to get out with me around...I'll just have to flush him out.' Deoxys changed his expression into the slightest smirk he could manage. Peace would be his soon enough. He just needed to think his next actions clearly in order to achieve his goals.

xxx

Tyrogue had bravely left the confines of his hut to view the intruder. He couldn't blame the actions of the exploration team. He would have left in a heartbeat when faced with such a fearsome opponent. But now was not the time to flee. This newcomer may have rid the tiny village of Lairon and Meditite, which as thankful as Tyrogue might be, now was not the time for thanks. This Pokémon was a threat. There was no denying it after the display of power it exhibited. And as the leader of the village, it was Tyrogue's duty to deal with those who might harm his fellow Pokémon. He may not have been able to rid their problem of Lairon and Meditite, and he likely wouldn't be able to stand up to this monstrosity...but at least he tried.

Putting aside all fears in what he believed to be a final act of heroism, Tyrogue lunged at the floating form of Deoxys. He gained an unprecedented amount of speed as his right fist glowed a white light. "Take this, heathen!" Tyrogue cried as his Mach Punch caught Deoxys in the back, square on his crystal heart. Deoxys grunted and fell forward slightly, but didn't let himself completely fall.

The DNA Pokémon was prepared to strike back at whatever had ambushed him, but found himself unable to guard against the incoming second attack. Tyrogue had used his punch to boost himself up further in the air, somersaulting into an attack position. His Hi Jump Kick made contact, again on Deoxys' heart but this time on his front side. The force literally drove Deoxys into the rocky soil, kicking up soot and sending bits of gravel away. Tyrogue faltered when he landed back on solid ground. He had to admit, age was getting to him. Not like it would matter.

As expected, Deoxys rose from his impact site with revenge blazing in his eyes. The small fighting Pokémon took notice of a series of cracks scattering from the center of Deoxys' heart. The coruscating lights from within also seemed to fluctuate erratically to match the damage. The vengeful Pokémon did not seem to take notice however, as his eyes began to glow a piercing blue and Tyrogue felt his body lift from the ground.

'You make a mockery of my power...' Deoxys communicated to the fighting Pokémon. 'And for your interference, death is the only retribution!'

xxx

A familiar flash of light emblazoned the lowest level of Wigglytuff's Guild. When it subsided moments later, the forms of Phloe, Raiga, and Tide could be seen in a heap on the floor. Had it been any other day, any other mission, this might have been dismissed as the norm. But it was the yells of fright from Raiga that quickly gained the attention of everyone in attendance. Loudred came bounding down the ladder to see what the commotion was about while other teams stood around and watched in a stupor.

"QUIET DOWN, would ya? Not everyone is DEAF here!"

Raiga's cries wouldn't cease, so Loudred did the only action he thought reasonable. Walking to our group, he came and slapped Raiga back to sense, quelling the shouts in the process.

At this point, Chatot and Wigglytuff had arrived on the scene. With Loudred's help, they pulled the three of us back on our feet, but we did not stay that way. Each of us was too shocked for words and we were too weak-kneed to remaining standing. Chatot looked around and called out one of teams standing nearby for assistance on carrying the three of us back to our rooms. Once we were all situated back in our team's room, minus Raiga of course, Chatot and Wigglytuff began the questions.

"What in blazes what that noise about?" Chatot cried in exasperation. "We thought you were mortally wounded!"

"Er...sorry, Chatot," I said with a hint of shame. I couldn't help it, we hadn't really made the most admirable of entrances back. Then again, we had basically faced Death face to face...well, at least it sure seemed like it. Whatever that Pokémon was, I certainly didn't want to see it again. But a feeling deep in my heart told me that was not the last I would hear of that guy, Deoxys.

Chatot sighed in defeat. You could tell he wanted to punish us for the disruption of peace, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He looked Phloe and I over once, twice even. I couldn't blame him, we were in a sorry state. But again, we just faced Death.

"Best to start it from the top. Tell us what happened on the mission, what caused your hasty return."

So we explained everything. Phloe told them all of the details of getting there and dealing with the mission we were hired for. I added a few details scattered throughout, but left out the part about freezing Raiga for obvious reasons. Then I told the Guildmaster and his assistant about the voice in my head and the arrival of Deoxys on the scene. How his power gripped the area. How he knew my name. And how he seemed bent on killing me.

When we finished, Wigglytuff and Chatot stared at Phloe and I, almost in utter disbelief. Then Wigglytuff crossed his arms and began to shake his head.

"Definitely not a friend. And by the sound of it, our mystery Pokémon. Don't you agree, Chatot?"

"Indeed, sir. Tide's description matches the witness poster, and more. I just cannot fathom why it would show up there of all places, after Tide of all Pokémon!"

While the two of them began to discuss the implications of the sighting, Phloe turned to face me. She wasn't looking the best, but it wasn't much of a surprise. The mission took a lot of energy out of us and we had taken a beating from Lairon and Meditite. We were lucky not to have dealt with Deoxys any further.

"Tide, this Pokémon...Deoxys, right? There's something really weird about him. He showed up after the meteor storm. So did you. He didn't seem like any human you knew before, did he?"

Phloe's theory was shocking. I hadn't thought of that, but surely Deoxys wasn't a human before. It didn't add up anyways. Nothing like Deoxys existed...well, not before Deoxys anyways. I of course had my own theories.

"Well I don't know, but I am almost certain he wasn't someone I knew. Thinking about the meteors though, how do we know he didn't come from the meteors. He could have hitched a ride or something. An alien Pokémon from planets beyond."

Now it was Phloe's turn for skepticism. "An alien, really Tide?"

"It's happened before."

"No one really knows about the Clefairies..."

"Elgeyems? Beheeyems?"

"Don't even bring those creeps into the conversation! You have no idea the rumors that circulate in our world about those guys."

"You're right. And I probably don't want to find out."

Before we could continue our discussion, Wigglytuff and Chatot finished theirs and were once again speaking to us. It seemed they had come up with something, because Wigglytuff had the same goofy grin he gets when something wonderful is about to happen. At the present time, I couldn't think of anything that might be considered "wonderful."

"The Guildmaster and I have made several decisions in light of your latest mission. First of all, we wish you congratulations. As you were not rewarded properly for the mission, we shall grant you each one item from our special warehouse. Think of it as a gift for a job well done, but just don't go around telling everyone."

"Thanks Chatot," said the two of us.

"Now for more important matters. First and foremost, in light of what has happened, Team Impact is hereby restricted to local jobs. Your team is to be banned from venturing further than a five mile radius from Treasure Town. Therefore, you can take up tasks from the citizens, take missions in the Beach Cave, or train. The choice is up to you, but you cannot leave. This will be for the safety of the two of you."

Phloe and I immediately sprang to our feet in protest (Oh hey, our legs stopped feeling like jelly). This wasn't expected, and we certainly were not going to take this ultimatum without arguing. Even if it was for our own good, I didn't want to stay cooped up in Treasure Town. Not that there was anything wrong with the place, I still wanted to get stronger and do some real missions.

"What about Raiga?" Phloe asked them. Chatot breathed a heavy sigh.

"Raiga is clear to continue his work with Team Fulmine. He has been deemed as not at risk. This 'Deoxys' character seems primed to find and attack Tide. As it stands for you, Phloe, you are equally in danger for being Tide's partner. Raiga was only with you both temporarily and therefore would not be subject to threats in the future." Now it was Wigglytuff's turn to interject.

"But that's not all! On the bright side, you both shouldn't be held up for very long! I am going to send two of our best teams to seek out Deoxys and bring this bad Pokémon to justice!"

At last some good news. Well, my interest was piqued, so I couldn't help but ask the next question.

"Who are they?"

xxx

"Team Impact, meet Team Charger and Team Ironmonger." Wigglytuff spread his arms to both of his sides to motion to the teams before us. Team Charger stood to his right, a Magneton, Voltorb, and Electivire all revved up and looking ready to start their mission. On Wigglytuff's left, there were a Mawile, a Magmar, and a Rhyperior, the famed Team Ironmonger. We were all outside of the entrance to the Guild and the sun was dropping in the late afternoon sky. Chatot rose from the level below and met us all to bid his farewells to the two teams.

"I can assume both teams have the necessary supplies and information? Remember, the Mount Horn area was Deoxys' last reported location, and it is unlikely he has gone far. Search the area and defeat him as soon as you can. If you find the challenge too great, return without hesitation. We cannot afford to lose any guild members, especially of such acclaimed teams. And with that, I wish you all luck." The two master teams saluted Chatot and Wigglytuff, and without another word they made their way down the long staircase and ran down the road, off to face an enemy I hope they would succeed in defeating. If they could not, I could only imagine what might come in the future.

xxx

After the two teams left, Phloe and I decided it was best to go back to our team's room and get some well-deserved rest. As fate would have it, we wouldn't get back as quickly as we might have liked. Walking down the second ladder, I lost my footing and fell, my shell smacking into something armored.

"You alright, Tide?" Phloe jumped down to check out what happened. As I slowly stood back up, I saw I had hit a Shieldon by the ladder. The little guy was glaring at me but let his anger go relatively quickly. Then he decided to freak out Phloe and I when he began to melt into a puddle of dark purple slime and reform in a small blob with a grin that automatically placed him as a troublemaker.

"Lucky I can change so fast," the Ditto remarked in a shrill squeak of a voice. "Of course, you're also lucky I didn't transform into something less pleasant, like a Nidorino."

Yeah, he wasn't the most pleasant Pokémon to begin with. Normally I would have just left it at that, but the Ditto didn't seem quite finished with me.

"Don't even think about leaving just yet! I still have a score to settle with you, punk!" That voice was really beginning to grind on my brain. He better shut his mouth soon...

"...And more importantly!...Hey, are you listenin' to me, punk? Come on, I'll take you on as a Magikarp!"

"I wouldn't, you might just hurt yourself." My snide remark must have really hit a nerve with the Ditto because the next thing I knew I was on my back with an Arcanine snarling in my face.

"Let's dance, punk! I'll shred your limbs off and char your flesh so that it melts off of the bone! I'll go and-"

"Enough, Dop."

The Ditto-turned-Arcanine growled and reluctantly stepped off of me, giving Phloe enough space to pull me back on my feet. As I checked to make sure I wasn't injured, Phloe froze to her spot. I couldn't be certain why until I looked at the newly arrived Pokémon, and in an instant I regretted it. The grey and mustard yellow coloration. The short, flowing cape. It was the same Shedinja from before.

"Ah...Team Impact, correct? I heard of your...escapade. Interesting, very interesting..."

Phloe had already shied herself back ever so slightly, her eyes refusing to let the Shedinja leave their sight. I coughed and turned my attention back to the bug Pokémon.

"So uh...we never really formally introduced ourselves before," I said in an attempt to break the anxiety between the teams. "I'm, uh, Tide. And this is my partner– "

"Phloe."

The Treecko behind me visibly cringed when the Shedinja spoke her name. The tone his voice carried was gravelly and carried the slightest hint of malevolence. Or was I just imagining it. It's not like you could tell since his face was virtually frozen in it's position.

"...Yeah, her name is Phloe. And you are?"

"My name is Umbra. I am the leader of Team Duplicity. You have already met one of my other team members, Dop." The Ditto sniggered and transformed back into his normal blob form, sliding on back to rejoin his teammate.

"My other team member is...occupied. All the same, his name is Seer. A Xatu. You will know him when you see him..." Umbra's cryptic words didn't help settle my fears nor Phloe's. She still stood behind me, hoping desperately that Umbra would leave soon. She got her wish, as Umbra began to float away after taking one last look at the two of us.

He stopped by the ladder and shifted his body to face us ever so slightly. I swear I could see a tiny gap between the cape and his back. What was it about Shedinja's again? Something about their backs, but I couldn't remember just what it was.

"I must hurry along now...the job of being an explorer beckons. I hope we have more time in the future to chat. I would like to hear more about the mystery Pokémon...Deoxys..."

He left immediately, before Phloe and I could say anything more. Dop transformed into a Taillow and flew after his leader, but not before shooting me a look as if to say, "Don't worry, I'll settle the score later."

Once she was sure the members of Team Duplicity had left, Phloe took a few deep breaths and walked a few steps away. I let her be, thinking it would be best to give her some space for the time being. Whatever it was about Umbra, she was not dealing with it well.

"Cypress...oh my gosh, Cypress." I caught her whispering softly and was about to ask her about it. She beat me to the punch though with her own question.

"How...how did Umbra know about the name of Deoxys? Neither of us told him, and Wigglytuff hasn't let that information leave himself, Chatot, and the two teams that left."

"I don't know. I mean, it's not like he could read our minds-"

"No, he couldn't. But a Xatu could."

xxx

Umbra silently floated down the steps from Wigglytuff's Guild. It was closing in on the early evening hours and he knew that sunlight would be short. No doubt in light of recent events the Guild would be enforcing a curfew for the time being, so time was short. Dop slid down the steps after his leader, faithfully following in his immovable loyalty.

When the reached the dirt path at the bottom, Dop morphed into a duplicate of Umbra. The same body, the same scratches, and the same cape. All that was different was a visible grin on the copy's face, quite a contrast to the cold expression on Umbra.

"Excellent work, Dop. You've been practicing you're skills diligently over the past few weeks."

The Umbra copy giggled joyfully. Dop loved to receive compliments on his disguises. They were a proud part of who he was, and to know he was attaining perfection was the best thing to hear.

"You know the plan of course. Time is short, so we have maybe an hour before we must be on our way back to the Guild. You take the road further down to the beach from here. I'll come around from Sharpedo Bluff and make my way down from there with the others. Don't let anyone think you are not me. Deceit needs to go without a hitch or else the plan will be ruined before it has a moment to be truly set in motion."

"Of course, Umbra. I would never fail the team, you know it!"

"Make sure of it."

Umbra left Dop to float towards the beach while he took the indirect route through Treasure Town. With the day coming to a close, the town would normally be shutting down in a gradual event. Thanks to the reopening of all trade routes after the meteor storm, the town was experiencing an influx of more Pokémon. Not an overwhelming number, but enough to be noticeably out of the norm.

Umbra continued floating along, his cape wavering with the small breeze that came through the cooling air. Umbra couldn't tell though. He was technically dead, so feeling didn't occur to him like it did everyone else. Not that it mattered. What mattered was the plan, and making sure no one interfered. That included one former human and his Treecko friend. Umbra wasn't sure quite yet what would be done, but he knew action would be necessary in the near future.

Distracted by his thoughts, the Shedinja failed to take notice of the Cubone and Totodile duo making their way from the path leading to the Marowak Dojo. This led to a comical tumble as the shedding Pokémon fell to the ground after running into the head of the Totodile, Thor.

"Pardon me..." Umbra said with the same dead monotone he used before, not once glancing to Thor or his partner, Mia. The Shedinja hurried onward, hovering towards Sharpedo Bluff quicker than before. Mia and Thor looked on as his formed retreated, confused and taken aback at his behavior.

Thor laughed to himself. "What a nut. I'm surprised Umbra hasn't broken that fragile shell he calls a body." Mia smiled sweetly at this and slowly raised her bone over her head, poised to attack.

"You really need to learn when certain comments are acceptable."

"Huh?"

Mia cracked her bone over Thor's head, delivering a concussion to the unaware Totodile. He clutched his snout in pain and whimpered at his partner.

"And you could learn to not be prone to smacking people with that thing. Your teammate most of all."

xxx

Umbra arrived at Sharpedo Bluff not long after his run-in with Team Rainskull. Cautiously patrolling the area, he was satisfied to see not a soul was near. He faced the sea from the point of the bluff and fired off a Will-O-Wisp attack. Patiently waiting, he smiled inwardly when he caught a shape rapidly soaring towards his position. Not long after, the cliff wall to the left of the bluff began to crumble in bits as a hole opened in its face. A Garchomp clawed his way out and hung from the opening he created. The flying form arrived soon after, revealing itself as a Xatu.

"Seer. Brutus. A pleasure to see the two of you once again."

Brutus snorted in mockery. "Please. Happiness is the last thing I would expect you to experience, especially towards us."

"All the same, I called you two for a reason. The plan shall be initiated soon and I know how to ensure its success. Follow me to the beach where Dop awaits and I shall explain everything.

Once the group of three made their way to the beach, they found Dop still in the form of Umbra, patiently hovering near the base of the cliff. When he caught sight of the others, he dropped to the sand and reformed into a Ditto. Xatu was the first to notice what had transpired.

"Dop's skills have advanced."

"You bet they have! Just wait until I get my hands on that Tide punk! That way I'll show you how good I am at this game!"

Umbra tried to quell his teammate. "You shall get the chance in due time. You know what must be done, but these two need to be filled in on what has transpired in their absence. Of course, a demonstration of what must be done is always in order. What you shall see is exactly what will guarantee success, should Seer's vision have proven correct. And without further interruption, Dop, will you enlighten our friends?"

The Ditto pulled as devilish a smile as he could muster before mutating his body shape into something short and humanoid. Seer and Brutus looked on, amazement being the only thing readable about their expressions. When Dop had finished with his transformation, the two were at a loss for words. Brutus shook himself out of the shock and spoke first.

"I cannot believe it. The little putty Pokémon nailed it." Seer nodded his agreement.

"Indeed. So Dop is to use this form to our advantage? I can certainly see it working, but you are sure you have all of the problems worked out?" Umbra nodded.

"Of course. I'm not a fool, I know how to prepare. Prophecy can never go wrong, and I know very well how to make sure my destiny remains in my grasp!"

* * *

**Aw man that was great to write. I have to say, Team Duplicity is such an interesting bunch to write about. Actually every team is, including the OC ones. Although I still think I'm biased towards Team Sting. Comic relief can never be excluded.**

**So I don't know when the next chapter will come around. I write when I can, but this one came over the last two nights (Heh, I stayed up way late to write these two nights. 6 hrs of sleep, FTW). No guarantees when I'll update next, but it'll come sooner than half a year, I promise. If you're lucky, sooner than a month :p**

**Well, that's all I really have to say. I've been watching a ton of films with my friends over the past few months...what a riot that has become. And I still await for Pokemon Black and White's release, as well as the 3DS. I'm getting White, people, so be ready for that. I'll be willing to battle then if anyone wants to...I've been working to get into the competitive stuff. I still need to beat the Battle Tower a few more times though before I can really get started.**

**And that's all. Later guys, thanks for reading! I appreciate it!**


End file.
